"The 73 essays in "The Enduring Civil War" grew out of an invitation to Gary Gallagher by a well-known Civil War history magazine to write a series of brief essays on a variety of topics related to the history of the war and era. The subjects Gallagher chose to write about over the following years highlight the complexity and richness of the war, from its origins to its memory, as topics for study, contemplation, and dispute. They place contemporary understanding of the Civil War, both academic and general, in conversation with testimony from people in the United States and the Confederacy who experienced and described it. Put another way, they investigate how mid-nineteenth-century perceptions align with, or deviate from, some current ideas regarding the origins, conduct, and aftermath of the war. The tension between history and memory forms a theme throughout the essays, underscoring how later perceptions about the war often took precedence over historical reality in the minds of many Americans. The essays cluster in several categories. Many address notable books and authors, featuring essential published primary accounts, both Union and Confederate, military and civilian, famous, and lesser known. Others assess historians who, though their names have receded with time, produced works that remain pertinent in terms of analysis or information. Several essays revisit conventional interpretations of events and personalities. They challenge, among other things, commonly held notions about Gettysburg and Vicksburg as decisive turning points, U. S. Grant as a general who profligately wasted Union manpower, the Gettysburg Address as a watershed that turned the war from a fight for Union into one for Union and emancipation, and Robert E. Lee as an old-fashioned general ill-suited to waging a modern mid-nineteenth-century war. Other essays examine recent scholarly trends, alerting non-academic readers to the evolving nature of the field and featuring crucial questions. Has a fascination with celebrated armies and generals obscured the importance of guerrilla operations? Did the conflict end in 1865 or continue through Reconstruction and beyond? How did the West figure in Union and Confederate planning and allocation of resources? Did emancipation join preserving the Union as an equivalent or even more important war aim for the mass of loyal soldiers and civilians in the United States? Should clashes between Indians and the U.S. Army and territorial units be considered part of the Civil War, or elements of a much longer historical drama that unfolded between the late eighteenth century and the last third of the nineteenth century? Has the Eastern Theater unfairly dominated the literature? Moreover, have students of the war ignored its more appalling and grotesque aspects? Gallagher presents the essays in six groupings. The first, titled "Framing the War," comprises eleven pieces that deal with chronology, history, and memory, and some of the new revisionist literature. Fifteen essays devoted to "Battles and Leaders" come next, with particular attention to Grant, Lee, and other major figures. The third grouping, "Controversies," offers twelve essays on such topics as turning points, counterfactuals, apportioning credit for emancipation, and when the war ended. The thirteen entries in the fourth grouping, "Historians and Books," together with the thirteen in the fifth, "Testimony from Participants," evaluate vital published primary and secondary accounts. The volume closes with "Places and Public Culture," the nine essays in which examine films, bloggers, preservation of battlefields, the memorial landscape, and related topics. The format of the collection lends itself to sampling, and readers might start in any of the groupings and go where their interests take them. Gallagher's essays are provocative and timely, and they will assuredly appeal widely by both scholars and general readers"-- Provided by publisher.