After exploring the social and political problems of the antebellum era, the author surveys the diplomatic and military strategies of the war.

The Home of the free and the slave : Away down South in Dixie -- Old times there are not forgotten -- North of slavery -- Years of crisis : The Disruptive years, 1848-1856 -- The Crisis years, 1856-1861 -- Secession, constitutional controversy, and Sumter -- The Fields of battle : The Union and the war -- The Confederacy and the war -- The Eastern theater of operations -- The Western theater of operations -- The War in the Trans-Mississippi West -- Naval operations -- Anglo-American diplomacy -- Diplomacy and war: Europe -- The Trials of reunion : Lincoln, Johnson, and reconstruction -- The Second phase of reconstruction -- Congressional reconstruction in operation -- The Grant era and post war politics.