Buying and Selling Civil War Memory explores the ways in which Gilded Age manufacturers, advertisers, publishers, and others commercialized Civil War memory. Advertisers used images of the war to sell everything from cigarettes to sewing machines; an entire industry grew up around uniforms made for veterans rather than soldiers; publishing houses built subscription bases by tapping into wartime loyalties; while old and young alike found endless sources of entertainment that harken...

Do You Think You Know the Civil War?The History Buff's Guide to the Civil War clears the powder smoke surrounding the war that changed America forever. The perfect guide for anyone looking for great history facts like:What were the best, the worst, the largest, and the most lethal aspects of the conflict?What are the top ten causes?The bloodiest battles?With over thirty annotated top ten lists and unexpected...

"Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron ChernowIn a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy—and explores why some of this country’s oldest wounds have never healed.Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhoo...

Winner of the Bancroft PrizeWinner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln PrizeWinner of the Merle Curti awardWinner of the Frederick Douglass PrizeNo historical event has left as deep an imprint on America's collective memory as the Civil War. In the war's aftermath, Americans had to embrace and cast off a traumatic past. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting, and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and America's ...

"A fascinating collection of essays" by eminent historians exploring how we teach, remember, and confront the history and legacy of American slavery ( Booklist Online).In recent years, the culture wars have called into question the way America's history of slavery is depicted in books, films, television programs, historical sites, and museums. In the first attempt to examine the historiography of slavery, this unique collection of essays looks at recent co...

Become a US trivia whiz with this crash course through four centuries of change, rebellion, conflict, and triumph in the United States.Where was America's lost colony? What tipped the balance in the Civil War? Were there second thoughts about dropping the atomic bomb?Acclaimed historian Dan Roberts—host of radio's A Moment in Time—takes readers on a bite-sized romp through five-hundred years of American history. With just one minute a day, y...

This fascinating compendium examines the legacy of the War Between the States.At the Washington Post, the Civil War has held an enduring fascination for both readers and writers. Raging from 1861 to 1865, the War Between the States has left a lasting imprint on the United States's collective psyche for 150 years. Civil War Stories: A 150th Anniversary Collection aggregates historical data with contemporary reflections, as journalists and historia...

A groundbreaking and “affecting and powerful” (The New York Times Book Review) history of Abraham Lincoln’s plan to secure a just and lasting peace after the Civil War—a vision that inspired future presidents as well as the world’s most famous peacemakers.As the tide of the Civil War turned in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln took a dangerous two-week trip to visit the troops on the front lines accompanied by his young son, seeing combat up close, meeti...

The true story of the black doctors and nurses who tended to Civil War soldiers in the capital.Just as African Americans fought in defense of the Union during the Civil War, African American nurses, doctors, and surgeons worked to heal those soldiers. In the nation's capital, these brave healthcare workers created a medical infrastructure for African Americans, by African Americans.Preeminent surgeon Alexander T. Augusta fought discrimination, visited Presi...

More than one hundred and fifty years after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still captures the American imagination, and its reverberations can still be felt throughout America's social and political landscape. Louis P. Masur's The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction offers a masterful and eminently readable overview of the war's multiple causes and catastrophic effects. Masur begins by examining the complex origins of the war, focusing on the pulsat...

How railroads both united and divided us: "Integrates military and social history…a must-read for students, scholars and enthusiasts alike."— Civil War MonitorBeginning with Frederick Douglass's escape from slavery in 1838 on the railroad, and ending with the driving of the golden spike to link the transcontinental railroad in 1869, this book charts a critical period of American expansion and national formation, one largely dominated by t...

"Cook makes clear the powerful ways that the reverberations of the Civil War still resonate within American political culture. A compelling story." —Joan Waugh, author of U. S. GrantWinner of the 2018 Book Prize in American Studies of the British Association of American StudiesAt a cost of at least 800,000 lives, the Civil War preserved the Union, aborted the breakaway Confederacy, and liberated a race of slaves. Civil War Memori...