Summary
For four years, the people of the United States fought against one another in a civil war that left 620,000 men dead. More Americans died during this bloody 19th-century conflict than in all other American wars combined. The soldiers who fought, as well as those who supported them, did so for reasons that were often personal and individualistic. Yet for both the North and the South, the war was about America's future—whether the United States would continue to be divided "half slave and half free." In the decades prior to the outbreak of war, Northerners and Southerners had clashed over the expansion of slavery into the western territories, an extended conflict that ultimately had to be decided on the battlefield. In the end, the Civil War decided those arguments, even as, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, it established "a new birth of freedom."
The Civil War Era: 1851–1865, Updated Edition covers this tumultuous time, exploring the catalysts for the bloodiest conflict in America's history. This informative eBook serves as a time capsule of the era, bringing to life the people and events that have shaped the nation through a clear and entertaining narrative and lively full-color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations. Students will find this eBook valuable for reports, a prime supplement to textbooks, or simply engaging reading.
About the Author(s)
Tim McNeese is an associate professor of history at York College in York, Nebraska, where he has been teaching for more than 15 years. McNeese earned an associate's degree from York College, a B.A. in history and political science from Harding University, and an M.A. in history from Missouri State University. He has published more than 100 books and educational materials over the past 20 years on everything from Picasso to landmark Supreme Court decisions. His writing has earned him a citation in the library reference work Contemporary Authors. In 2006, McNeese appeared on the History Channel program Risk Takers/History Makers: John Wesley Powell and the Grand Canyon.
Richard Jensen is a research professor at Montana State University, Billings. He has published 11 books on a wide range of topics in American political, social, military, and economic history, as well as computer science. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale and has taught at numerous colleges and universities, including Michigan, Harvard, Illinois–Chicago, and West Point.