Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-262) and index.
Contents:
Part I. Framing the war. Linking America's two most important wars -- Antebellum -- History and historical memory -- Our West -- One war or two?: the United States versus Confederates and Indians, 1861-1865 -- Unconventional warfare -- The dark turn-- late nineteenth-century style -- Reckoning with Confederate desertion -- The Grand Review -- Revisiting the Gettysburg Address -- Environmental shocks -- Part II. Generals and battles. Tracking U.S. Grant's reputation -- The supreme partnership -- R.E. Lee as a general -- Robert E. Lee's multiple loyalties -- A one-sided friendship -- Attrition in Lee's high command -- Little Mac -- How Lee's "Old War-Horse" gained a new following -- Stonewall Jackson and the Confederate people -- Stonewall and Old Jube in the valley -- Sheridan makes his name in the valley -- Poor George Gordon Meade -- Reynolds and Sedgwick -- Toward Santa Fe and beyond: Confederates in New Mexico -- Gettysburg in perspective -- Part III. Controversies. Let the chips fall where they will -- Two ways to approach one war -- The Union in memory -- The Union army and emancipation -- Union veterans claimed they fought for a higher cause -- The war was won in the East -- The desperate gamble -- The war's overlooked turning points -- Did the fall of Vicksburg really matter? -- What if? -- Did the war end in 1865? -- Occupation and the Union military effort -- Part IV. Historians and books. Lessons from David M. Potter -- Two gifted writers -- "The plain folk's pioneer" reframed history -- Recovering Allan Nevins -- Acknowledging Ella Lonn -- Shelby Foote, popular historian -- Gettysburg's great historian -- British writers view the Confederacy -- Biographers and generals -- A tactical history masterpiece -- Off the tracks -- The "other" Confederate army -- Deciding what to read -- Part V. Testimony from participants. Seeing the war through soldiers' letters -- Father Neptune's war -- Abner Doubleday's revenge -- Congressional oversight with a punch -- Voices from the Army of the Potomac -- Harvard men at war -- John B. Jones's war -- Right-hand men -- Confederate women view the war -- Wartime chronicle -- A window into Confederate memory -- An indispensable Confederate and his diary -- Every sketch tells a story -- Part VI. Places and public culture. Go to Gettysburg! -- Battlefields as teaching tools -- Fluid landscapes -- Reevaluating Virginia's "shared history" -- The power of photographs -- Glory: reflections on a Civil War classic -- Hollywood's twenty-first-century Lincoln.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.