This book is the first omnibus history of the literature of the American Civil War, the deadliest conflict in US history.

1. Harriet Beecher Stowe and the 'book that made this great war' Judie Newman; 2. The American book trade and the Civil War Michael Winship; 3. The transatlantic history of Civil War literature Christopher Hanlon; 4. The 'American renaissance' after the American Civil War Randall Fuller; 5. The realists' Civil War Ian Finseth; 6. Dépôt culture: the Civil War and periodical fiction Kathleen Diffley; 7. Imitation and resistance in Civil War poetry and song Faith Barrett; 8. Children's literature James Marten; 9. Writing lives: Civil War diaries Jane E. Schultz; 10. Civil War memoir Sarah E. Gardner; 11. Civil War narrative history T. Austin Graham; 12. Walt Whitman Martin Buinicki; 13. Emily Dickinson Shira Wolosky; 14. Herman Melville Milette Shamir; 15. Abraham Lincoln Shirley Samuels; 16. Frederick Douglass Robert S. Levine; 17. Mary Boykin Chesnut Julia A. Stern; 18. Mark Twain Neil Schmitz; 19. William Faulkner John T. Matthews; 20. Robert Penn Warren John Burt; 21. Natasha Trethewey Daniel Cross Turner.