In this remarkable collection, ten premier scholars of nineteenth-century America address the epochal impact of the Civil War by examining the conflict in terms of three Americas -- antebellum, wartime, and postbellum nations. Moreover, they recognize the critical role in this transformative era of three groups of Americans -- white northerners, white southerners, and African Americans in the North and South. Through these differing and sometimes competing perspectives, the contributors address crucial ongoing controversies at the epicenter of the cultural, political, and intellectual history of this decisive period in American history.

Coeditors William J. Cooper, Jr., and John M. McCardell, Jr., introduce the collection, which contains essays by the foremost Civil War scholars of our time: James M. McPherson considers the general import of the war; Peter S. Onuf and Christa Dierksheide examine how patriotic southerners reconciled slavery with the American Revolutionaries' faith in the new nation's progressive role in world history; Sean Wilentz attempts to settle the long-standing debate over the reasons for southern secession; and Richard Carwardine identifies the key wartime contributors to the nation's sociopolitical transformation and the redefinition of its ideals.

George C. Rable explores the complicated ways in which southerners adopted and interpreted the terms "rebel" and "patriot," and Chandra Manning finds three distinct understandings of the relationship between race and nationalism among Confederate soldiers, black Union soldiers, and white Union soldiers. The final three pieces address how the country dealt with the meaning of the war and its memory: Nina Silber discusses the variety of ways we continue to remember the war and the Union victory; W. Fitzhugh Brundage tackles the complexity of Confederate commemoration; and David W. Blight examines the complicated African American legacy of the war. In conclusion, McCardell suggests the challenges and rewards of using three perspectives for studying this critical period in American history.

Presented originally at the "In the Cause of Liberty" symposium hosted by The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia, these incisive essays by the most respected and admired scholars in the field are certain to shape historical debate for years to come.

The politics of slavery consumed the political world of the antebellum South. Although local economic, ethnic, and religious issues tended to dominate northern antebellum politics, The South and the Politics of Slavery convincingly argues that national and slavery-related issues were the overriding concerns of southern politics during these years. Accordingly, southern voters saw their parties, both Democratic and Whig, as the advocates and guardians of southern rights in the nation.

William Cooper traces and analyzes the history of southern politics from the formation of the Democratic party in the late 1820s to the demise of the Democratic-Whig struggle in the 1850s, reporting on attitudes and reactions in each of the eleven states that were to form the Confederacy. Focusing on southern politicians and parties, Cooper emphasizes their relationship with each other, with their northern counterparts, and with southern voters, and he explores the connections between the values of southern white society and its parties and politicians. Based on extensive research in regional political manuscripts and newspapers, this study will be valuable to all historians of the period for the information and insight it provides on the role of the South in politics of the nation during the lifespan of the Jacksonian party system.

Initially published between 1970 and 2012, the essays in Approaching Civil War and Southern History span almost the entirety of William J. Cooper's illustrious scholarly career and range widely across a broad spectrum of subjects in Civil War and southern history. Together, they illustrate the broad scope of Cooper's work. While many essays deal with his well-known interests, such as Jefferson Davis or the secession crisis, others are on lesser-known subjects, such as Civil War artist Edwin Forbes and the writer Daniel R. Hundley. In the new introduction to each chapter, Cooper notes the essay's origins and purpose, explaining how it fits into his overarching interest in the nineteenth-century political history of the South. Combined and reprinted here for the first time, the ten essays in Approaching Civil War and Southern History reveal why Cooper is recognized today as one of the most influential historians of our time.

In his masterpiece, Jefferson Davis, American, William J. Cooper, Jr., crafted a sweeping, definitive biography and established himself as the foremost scholar on the intriguing Confederate president. Cooper narrows his focus considerably in Jefferson Davis and the Civil War Era, training his expert eye specifically on Davis's participation in and influence on events central to the American Civil War. Nine self-contained essays address how Davis reacted to and dealt with a variety of issues that were key to the coming of the war, the war itself, or in memorializing the war, sharply illuminating Davis's role during those turbulent years.

Cooper opens with an analysis of Davis as an antebellum politician, challenging the standard view of Davis as either a dogmatic priest of principle or an inept bureaucrat. Next, he looks closely at Davis's complex association with secession, which included, surprisingly, a profound devotion to the Union. Six studies explore Davis and the Confederate experience, with topics including states' rights, the politics of command and strategic decisions, Davis in the role of war leader, the war in the West, and the meaning of the war. The final essay compares and contrasts Davis's first inauguration in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861 with a little-known dedication of a monument to Confederate soldiers in the same city twenty-five years later. In 1886, Davis -- an old man of seventy-eight and in poor health -- had himself become a living monument, Cooper explains, and was an essential element in the formation of the Lost Cause ideology.

Cooper's succinct interpretations provide straightforward, compact, and deceptively deep new approaches to understanding Davis during the most critical time in his life. Certain to stimulate further thought and spark debate, Jefferson Davis and the Civil War Era offers rare insight into one of American history's most complicated and provocative figures.

Edwin Forbes's Thirty Years After is surely one of the most remarkable firsthand accounts of the Civil War ever published. Originally issued in 1890--thus the title--the lavish, oversized book is both a pictorial and a written record of the daily experience of war. It contains almost two hundred etchings of Civil War scenes along with twenty equestrian portraits of Union generals such as Grant, Sherman, McClellan, and Custer, reproduced from oil paintings. The present edition is a facsimile of the original, with the addition of an Introduction by William J. Cooper, Jr, who discusses the significance of the books and provides a biographical sketch of Edwin Forbes and information about he role of journalists in the war.

Forbes, born in New York City in 1839, was a staff artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. On assignment for the paper, Forbes traveled with the federal army from the battle of Cross Keys, in 1862, to the siege of Petersburg, in 1864. A keen observer, Forbes sketched battlefields, campsites, and other scenes that he later rendered in relief etchings on copper plate. Some of the etchings were published in a portfolio in 1876. For the much larger Thirty Years After, Forbes executed scores of additional etchings and wrote an informative text to go with them. The book is divided into dozens of brief chapters, with each chapter's text serving to introduce and explain the accompanying illustrations.

Although Forbes made drawings of officers, he was clearly more interested in depicting the common soldier. His evocative etchings show such scenes as a regiment marching into camp at nightfall, an artillery reserve rolling into action at Cemetery Hill, a cavalry charge at Brandy Station, a band of prisoners lined up for execution, positioned so that they would tumble directly into their coffins.

Forbes did not flinch from portraying the full terror and force of combat, but he also clearly understood that soldiering was not a one-dimensional experience. Many of his studies reveal the almost-forgotten minutiae of war. He shows soldiers engaged in such ordinary activities as preparing meals, laundering uniforms, avidly reading about events at him whenever newspapers were available, and relaxing between skirmishes. His illustrations also depict supply trains, pontoon bridges, army hospitals, and slaver cabins. In drawings of Confederate soldiers, Forbes emphasizes the comradely bond that sometimes could develop between opposing sides. A particularly telling etching shows Confederate pickets exchanging tobacco for coffee with their Union counterparts.

For the modern reader, this visually arresting book offers a unique perspective on the Civil War.

Studies diverse topics on the writing of Civil War history No event has transformed the United States more fundamentally--or been studied more exhaustively--than the Civil War. In Writing the Civil War, fourteen distinguished historians present a wide-ranging examination of the vast effort to chronicle the conflict--an undertaking that began with the remembrances of Civil War veterans and has become an increasingly prolific field of scholarship. Covering topics from battlefield operations to the impact of race and gender, this volume is an informative guide through the labyrinth of Civil War literature. The contributors provide authoritative and interpretive evaluations of the study and explication of the struggle that has been called the American Iliad. The first four essays consider military history: Joseph Thomas Glatthaar writes on battlefield tactics, Gary W. Gallagher on Union strategy, Emory M. Thomas on Confederate strategy, and Reid Mitchell on soldiers. In essays that focus on political concerns, Mark E. Neely, Jr. links the military and political with his examination of presidential leadership, while Michael F. Holt surveys the study of Union politics, and George C. Rable examines the work on Confederate politics. Michael Les Benedict bridges political and societal concerns in his discussion of constitutional questions; Phillip Shaw Paludan and james L. roark confront the broad themes of economics and society in the North and South; and Drew Gilpin Faust and Peter Kolchin evaluate the importance of gender, slavery, and race relations. Writing the Civil War demonstrates the richness and diversity of Civil War scholarship and identifies topics yet to be explored. Noting a surprising dearth of scholarship in several area, the essays point to new directions in the quest to understand the complexities of the most momentous event in American history.