Explores the political and social dimensions of the Civil War in both the North and South.

Part I. Causes: 1. The Antebellum war over slavery Stanley Harrold; 2. The election of 1860 Michael Green; 3. Secession and disunion Michael E. Woods; Part II. Managing the War: 4. Strategy, operations, and tactics Donald Stoker and Mark Elam; 5. Union military leadership Ethan S. Rafuse; 6. Confederate military leadership Steven Woodworth; 7. Technology and war Andrew S. Bledsoe; 8. Armies and discipline Lesley J. Gordon; 9. Financing the war David K. Thomson; 10. Guerrilla wars Barton A. Myers; 11. Occupation Joan E. Cashin; 12. Atrocities, retribution, and laws D. H. Dilbeck; 13. Environmental war Lisa M. Brady; 14. Civil war health and medicine Shauna Devine; 15. Prisoners of war Lorien Foote; Part III. The Global War: 16. The Civil War in the Americas Andre M. Fleche; 17. The Civil War in Europe Brian Schoen; Part IV. Politics: 18. Radicals and Republicans J. Matthew Gallman; 19. Northern Democrats Adam I. P. Smith; 20. Confederate politics Paul D. Escott; 21. Lincoln and the war Jonathan W. White; 22. Peace and dissent in the North Jennifer L. Weber; 23. African American political activism Stephen Kantrowitz; 24. Davis and the War John M. Sacher; 25. Peace and dissent in the South David Brown.