The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War

Whether your ancestors donned the uniform of Billy Yank or Johnny Reb — or even if they took no part in the great conflict that divided North and South — every American today needs to understand the causes and implications of the War Between the States. No other event has so vividly underscored our strengths and weaknesses as a people and as a nation, and no other event has so changed our citizenry and our government.

Back in print for the 150th anniversary of the War, this lavishly illustrated resource was not published to provoke new hostilities, but so Americans might better understand the hot and brutal passions that exploded into a bloody quarrel between brothers.

John Dwyer’s personal study into the dusty records from the past answers these and a host of other questions, providing keen insights into this 19th-century conflict that has important parallels to specific challenges our nation faces today. Few events in America’s history have been as influential — or as complicated — as the bloody war between our southern and northern states. Yet Dwyer deftly cuts through the “politically correct” and revisionist confusion to present clear lessons from America’s uncivil war.

To set the conflict in context, Dwyer has compiled numerous source documents on the development of social and religious ideas that preceded secession and war, excerpts of which are featured in sidebars throughout the book. The key battles and military campaigns are described in detail as well, depicting how they affected soldiers and civilians alike. And the changes to American society, attitudes, and new trends in Constitutional legislation that followed the war are also carefully explained in this groundbreaking work.

Featuring research and articles from George Grant, J. Steven Wilkins, Douglas Wilson, and Tom Spencer, this beautifully-designed, 700-page hardback resource also showcases the paintings of John Paul Strain, and includes nearly 500 photographs, maps, and charts, as well as dozens of biographies of politicians, theologians, writers, soldiers, inventors, spies, nurses, and journalists.