The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian "ranges informally but authoritatively" across Civil War-related topics in a thought-provoking essay collection (The New York Times).

Based on a lecture series delivered at Wesleyan University, these essays come from Bruce Catton, a New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author acclaimed as "one of America's foremost Civil War authorities" (Kirkus Reviews). In them, he delves more deeply into the subject of the war and its meaning for America—addressing such issues as the psychology of the citizen soldier; the presidential career of Ulysses S. Grant; and what happens to civil liberties in wartime. He explores how the war compelled the nation to confront questions about race and democracy, and places the conflict in a wider context, identifying it as the world's first truly modern war.

"Nothing in our time makes the Civil War as alive as the writings of Bruce Catton." —The Baltimore Sun