A well-balanced guide to the principal issues and personalities of America's most painful period. companion to "20 Good Reasons to Study the Civil War", it not designed to be the last word on the experience and the era, but it contains virtually all of the words needed to give a reader a considerable familiarity in a remarkably short time.

Acclaimed historian Grady McWhiney presents a concise, well-balanced guide to the principal issues and personalities of America's most painful period--The Civil War.