Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.

In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom." Where past scholars have limned the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere. As the Second Great Awakening surged through America, political questions became...

Did you know that it was not until over a year into the Civil War that the abolition of slavery became a stated war aim of the North? Readers can discover this fact along with a comprehensive account of the war that forever shaped American history in this valuable resource. Through the use of both general and chapter-specific timelines, this book provides a clear outline from which readers can gain valuable knowledge about the war that saw Americans...

"America in the antebellum years was a deeply troubled country, divided by partisan gridlock and ideological warfare, angry voices in the streets and the statehouses, furious clashes over race and immigration, and a growing chasm between immense wealth and desperate poverty. The Civil War that followed brought America to the brink of self-destruction. But it also created a new country from the ruins of the old one―bolder and stronger than ever....

Text recounts the historic Civil War battle at Gettysburg and photographs capture a reenactment of that encounter, performed in 1988 in honor of the 125th anniversary.