U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction

More than one hundred and fifty years after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still captures the American imagination, and its reverberations can still be felt throughout America's social and political landscape. Louis P. Masur's The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction offers a masterful and eminently readable overview of the war's multiple causes and catastrophic effects. Masur begins by examining the complex origins of the war, focusing on the pulsating tensions over states rights and slavery. The book then proceeds to cover, year by year, the major political, social, and military events, highlighting two important themes: how the war shifted from a limited conflict to restore the Unionto an all-out war that would fundamentally transform Southern society, and the process by which the war ultimately became a battle to abolish slavery. Masur explains how the war turned what had been a loose collection of fiercely independent states into a nation, remaking its political, cultural, and socialinstitutions. But he also focuses on the soldiers themselves, both Union and Confederate, whose stories constitute nothing less than America's Iliad. In the final chapter Masur considers the aftermath of the South's surrender at Appomattox and the clash over the policies of reconstruction that continued to divide President and Congress, conservatives and radicals, Southerners and Northerners for years to come. In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley wrote that the war had "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." This concise history of the entire Civil War era offers an invaluable introduction to the dramatic events whose effects are still felt today.

Masur's pocket-sized chronological account of the Civil War packs a powerful punch It is hard to overstate this accomplishment, as so many have tried before and failed., A short history of the Civil War is a daunting task to say the least, so complex and wide-ranging is the story, yet Louis P. Masur has accomplished the task not only with remarkable all-inclusiveness, but with considerable perception, and not a little genuine eloquence. The result is surely the finest account in brief compass that we have., Louis P. Masur has done a splendid job of explaining why the Civil War came, how it unfolded, and what Union victory meant. His ability to bring clarity to such a complex subject in so few pages makes this a wonderful place for anyone to begin an exploration of the most important period in American history."-Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War, A succinct, highly readable account, Masur's book conveys both the drama and the complexity of America's greatest moral and political crisis."- Jacqueline Jones, author of Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War, Louis Masur's history of the Civil War is extraordinarily deft and balanced, featuring a judicious choice of primary source quotations."-Elizabeth Varon, University of Virginia

Louis P. Masur is Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History at Rutgers University. His many books include Lincoln's Last Speech: Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion (OUP, 2015), Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union, and "the real war will never get in the books": Selections from Writers during the Civil War (OUP,1993).