This best-selling title, designed to be either the primary anthology or textbook for the course, covers the Civil War's entire chronological span with a series of documents and essays.

The north and south compared --Sectional politics in the 1850's -- The secession crisis -- Fighting the war : the generals -- Fighting the war : the soldiers -- Abraham Lincoln as political and military leader -- The northern home front -- The southern home front -- Women in wartime -- Emancipation -- Congress's terms for the defeated south -- Political and economic change in the reconstruction south -- Southern republicans and the problems of reconstruction -- The northern retreat from reconstruction -- The impact and significance of the sectional conflict.