"Both the Civil War and World War I commemorations have been shaped by the early twenty-first-century context from which we view the consequences of these cataclysmic events. The third decade of the twenty-first century is an appropriate time to take stock of what historians have learned from these two conflicts. Additionally, it is an opportunity to reperiodize the conflicts as part of the same era-part of the long 19th century-rather than viewing them as products of separate times. The contributors to Wars Civil and Great compare the American experience in the Civil War and Great War by having scholars answer questions, focusing and drawing on their own particular area of understanding. Each author addresses four overarching questions: What legacy did the Civil War leave? Did the World War I generation interpret the lessons of the Civil War and, if so, how? Third, how did the Great War change the lessons from the Civil War Era? And, finally, how did both wars contribute to the modernization of the United States?"-- Provided by publisher.

"On each side there emerged a supreme commander" : Ulysses S. Grant and John J. Pershing (and Douglas Haig), 1861-1918 /David J. Silbey -- Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and dying for one's country / Brian Dirck -- African American soldiers : the struggle for equality through service in the Civil War and Great War / Debra Sheffer -- "By word or act oppose the cause of the United States" : loyalty in Civil War era and Great War era America / Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai -- War and the shaping of American medicine : the American Civil War and the Great War / Dale Smith and Shauna Devine -- Healing the unseen wounds of war : treating mental trauma in the Civil War and the Great War / Kathleen Logothetis Thompson -- Blood and soil : Americans and environment in the trenches of Petersburg and the Western Front / Brian Allen Drake -- "We owe everything to their valor and sacrifice" : the experiences of Civil War and Great War veterans" / Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai.