The U.S. Civil War

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 pulsating tensions over states rights and slavery. The book then proceeds to cover, year by year, the major political, social, and military events, highlighting two important themes: how the war shifted from a limited conflict to restore the Union to an all-out war that would fundamentally transform Southern society, and the process by which the war ultimately became a battle to abolish slavery. Masur explains how the war turned what had been a loose collection of fiercely independent states into a nation, remaking its political, cultural, and social institutions. But he also focuses on the soldiers themselves, both Union and Confederate, whose stories constitute nothing less than America's Iliad. In the final chapter Masur considers the aftermath of the South's surrender at Appomattox and the clash over the policies of reconstruction that continued to divide President and Congress, conservatives and radicals, Southerners and Northerners for years to come. In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley wrote that the war had "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." This concise history of the entire Civil War era offers an invaluable introduction to the dramatic events whose effects are still felt today.

Product details

• Authors: Louis P Masur, Louis P. Masur, Louis P. (Distinguished Professor of Americ Masur, Louis P. (Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History Masur, Masur Louis P.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Trade
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2020
• EAN: 9780197513668
• ISBN: 978-0-19-751366-8
• Dimensions: 115 mm x 175 mm x 10 mm
• Series: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION; Very Short Introductions; Very Short Introduction
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), HISTORY / North America, c 1800 to c 1900, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Slavery & abolition of slavery, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Civil wars, American Civil War