This book covers one of the most turbulent periods of the USA's history, from the Mexican War in 1848 to the end of the Civil War in 1865. With a broad historical sweep, it traces the heightening sectional conflict of the 1850s: the growing estrangement of the South and its impassioned defence of slavery; the formation of the Republican Party in the North, with its increasing opposition to slavery; and the struggle over territorial expansion, with its accompanying social tensions and economic expansion. The whole panorama of the Civil War is captured in these pages, from the military campaign, which is described with vividness, immediacy, a grasp of strategy and logistics, and a keen awareness of the military leaders and the common soldiers involved, to its political and social aspects.

Prizes

Winner of Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.

Anyone interested in Texas and the republic to which it belongs should set some weeks aside for this big, smart porcupine of a book * Patrick G. Williams, Southwestern Historical Quarterly *
what will surely become the standard one-volume history of the great conflict which forged America as a united nation. Godfrey Hodgson, The Independent _
probably the best single-volume history of America's Civil War yet written. * The Economist *

James M. McPherson is Professor of History at Princeton University.