How the South Could Have Won the Civil War
The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat
Written by Bevin Alexander

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Crown Forum
On Sale: November 25, 2008
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-34600-1 (0-307-34600-5)

Destroying conventional historical wisdom, acclaimed military historian Bevin Alexander reveals how the South most definitely could have defeated the North-and how close a Confederate victory came to happening. Alexander shows:

•How the Confederacy had its greatest chance to win the war just three months into the fighting-but blew it
• How the... Read more >

Fields of Honor
Pivotal Battles of the Civil War
Written by Edwin C. Bearss
Introduction by James McPherson

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: June 5, 2007
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0093-9 (1-4262-0093-5)

Few historians have ever captured the drama, excitement, and tragedy of the Civil War with the headlong elan of Edwin Bearss, who has won a huge, devoted following with his extraordinary battlefield tours and eloquent soliloquies about the heroes, scoundrels, and little-known moments of a conflict that still fascinates America. Antietam... Read more >

Receding Tide
Vicksburg and Gettysburg: The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War
Written by Edwin C. Bearss and J. Parker Hills

Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: May 18, 2010
Price: $28.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0510-1 (1-4262-0510-4)

It’s a poignant irony in American history that on Independence Day, 1863, not one but two pivotal Civil War battles ended in Union victory, marked the high tide of Confederate military fortune, and ultimately doomed the South’s effort at secession. But on July 4, 1863, after six months of siege, Ulysses... Read more >

Devil's Dream

Written by Madison Smartt Bell

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 16, 2010
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27991-0 (0-307-27991-X)

A powerful new novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most reviled, celebrated, and legendary of Civil War generals. With the same eloquence, dramatic energy, and grasp of history that marked his award-winning fictional trilogy of the Haitian Revolution, Madison Smartt Bell now turns his gaze to America’s Civil War. We see... Read more >

Civil War Wives
The Lives & Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis & Julia Dent Grant
Written by Carol Berkin

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 2, 2010
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9578-0 (1-4000-9578-6)

Here are the life stories of three women who connect us to our national past and provide windows onto a social and political landscape that is strangely familiar yet shockingly foreign.

Berkin focuses on three “accidental heroes” who left behind sufficient records to allow their voices to be heard clearly and to... Read more >

Civil War Wives
The Lives and Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant
Written by Carol Berkin

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: September 8, 2009
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4446-7 (1-4000-4446-4)

In the life stories of three “accidental heroes”—women whose marriages provided them with position and perspective they would not otherwise have had—Carol Berkin, one of the nation’s premier historians, offers a unique understanding of the tumultuous social and political landscape of their time.

Drawing on private and public records, Berkin shows us... Read more >

They Fought Like Demons
Women Soldiers in the Civil War
Written by De Anne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 9, 2003
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3315-7 (1-4000-3315-2)

“Albert Cashier” served three years in the Union Army and passed successfully as a man until 1911 when the aging veteran was revealed to be a woman named Jennie Hodgers. Frances Clayton kept fighting even after her husband was gunned down in front of her at the Battle of Murfreesboro. And... Read more >

The Civil War Dictionary

Written by Mark Boatner

Format: Trade Paperback, 1024 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 1, 1991
Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-73392-8 (0-679-73392-2)

This invaluable volume contains over 4,000 entries, including 2,000 biographical sketches of Civil War leaders; extensive descriptions of all 20 campaigns (and entries on lesser battles, engagements, and skirmishes) and politics, literature, statistics, military terms and definitions; and 86 specially prepared maps and diagrams.  

"This remarkable book constitutes an encyclopedia of the... Read more >

Blood and Daring
How Canada Fought the American Civil War and Forged a Nation
Written by John Boyko

Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: Knopf Canada
On Sale: May 28, 2013
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-36144-8 (0-307-36144-6)

In Blood and Daring, lauded historian John Boyko makes a compelling argument that Canadian Confederation occurred when and as it did largely because of the pressures of the Civil War. Many readers will be shocked by Canada’s deep connection to the war--Canadians fought in every major battle, supplied arms to the... Read more >

The Man Who Saved the Union
Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
Written by H.W. Brands

Format: Trade Paperback, 752 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: May 28, 2013
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-47515-2 (0-307-47515-8)

Ulysses Grant emerges in this masterful biography as a genius in battle and a driven president to a divided country, who remained fearlessly on the side of right. He was a beloved commander in the field who made the sacrifices necessary to win the war, even in the face of criticism... Read more >

The Man Who Saved the Union
Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
Written by H.W. Brands

Format: Hardcover, 736 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
On Sale: October 2, 2012
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-53241-9 (0-385-53241-5)

From New York Times bestselling author H. W. Brands, a masterful biography of the Civil War general and two-term president who saved the Union twice, on the battlefield and in the White House, holding the country together at two critical turning points in our history.

Ulysses Grant rose from obscurity to discover... Read more >

The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe
or, How the Confederate Cruisers Were Equipped
Written by James D. Bulloch
Introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern

Format: Trade Paperback, 672 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: June 12, 2001
Price: $29.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-64022-6 (0-679-64022-3)

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis sent merchant marine James D. Bulloch to Europe to clandestinely acquire arms and ships for the Confederate navy. His first stop was Britain, a country hedging its bets on who would win the War Between the States and willing to secretly provide... Read more >

Grant
A Novel
Written by Max Byrd

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: May 29, 2001
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-38018-7 (0-553-38018-4)

By the author of Jefferson and Jackson, this is a fictional portrait of Civil War general and American president Ulysses S. Grant captures a unique, flawed man who led the North to a successful conclusion in the Civil War, was elected president, failed as both a farmer and businessman, and fought... Read more >

Lincoln
A Life of Purpose and Power
Written by Richard Carwardine

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 9, 2007
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9602-2 (1-4000-9602-2)

As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and the emancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to being the greatest of our presidents. But the story of his rise to greatness is as complex as it is compelling.

In this superb, prize-winning biography, acclaimed historian Richard Carwardine... Read more >

This Hallowed Ground
A History of the Civil War
Written by Bruce Catton

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 3, 2012
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-94708-6 (0-307-94708-4)

First published in 1955, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Bruce Catton’s classic account of the Civil War simultaneously captures the dramatic scope and intimate experience of that epic struggle in one brilliant volume.

Covering events from the prelude of the conflict to the death of Lincoln, Catton blends a gripping narrative with deep... Read more >

The Reel Civil War
Mythmaking in American Film
Written by Bruce Chadwick

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 3, 2002
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70832-9 (0-375-70832-4)

During the late nineteenth century, magazines, newspapers, novelists, and even historians presented a revised version of the Civil War that, intending to reconcile the former foes, downplayed the issues of slavery and racial injustice, and often promoted and reinforced the worst racial stereotypes. The Reel Civil War tells the history of... Read more >

The Passing of Armies
An Account Of The Final Campaign Of The Army Of The Potomac
Written by Joshua Chamberlain

Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: December 1, 1992
Price: $7.99
ISBN: 978-0-553-29992-2 (0-553-29992-1)

Introduction by James M. McPherson. An unlikely hero, college professor Joshua Chamberlain, led the 20th Maine in all the fiercest battles of the eastern theater, winning the Medal of Honor for his heroic leadership at Gettysburg. Recounted in this book, first published in 1915, are the dramatic final acts of the... Read more >

A Chance Meeting
Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists
Written by Rachel Cohen

Format: Trade Paperback, 392 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: February 8, 2005
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7129-3 (0-8129-7129-9)

Each chapter of this inventive consideration of American culture evokes an actual meeting between American writers and artists, from Henry James and Mathew Brady, to Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, to Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore, to Norman Mailer and Robert Lowell. The accumulation of these pairings draws the reader... Read more >

Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic
First Naval Actions of the Civil War
Written by Jack Coombe

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: April 1, 2003
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-0-553-38073-6 (0-553-38073-7)

From acclaimed historian and author Jack D. Coombe, Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic is an extensive new account of the first naval battles of the Civil War. Coombe begins with President Lincoln’s 1861 proclamation of a blockade across southern ports and waterways–a blockade that covered 3,500 miles of coastline, nearly 200 harbors... Read more >

Jefferson Davis, American

Written by William J. Cooper

Format: Trade Paperback, 848 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 13, 2001
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-72542-5 (0-375-72542-3)

With elegant writing and an impressive depth of research, William J. Cooper, Jr. gives us a fully realized biography of this complex figure.

Jefferson Davis emerges as a man devoted to the ideals of America, as he understood them. The son a veteran of the American Revolution, a graduate of West Point... Read more >

We Have the War Upon Us
The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861
Written by William J. Cooper

Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: September 11, 2012
Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4200-5 (1-4000-4200-3)

Winner of the Jefferson Davis Award

In this carefully researched book William J. Cooper gives us a fresh perspective on the period between Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861, during which all efforts to avoid or impede secession and prevent war failed. Here... Read more >

Sherman's March
The First Full-Length Narrative of General William T. Sherman's Devastating March through Georgia and the Carolinas
Written by Burke Davis

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 12, 1988
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-75763-6 (0-394-75763-7)

Sherman’s March is the vivid narrative of General William T. Sherman’s devastating sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas in the closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically brings to life the dramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plundered their way through... Read more >

Joshua L. Chamberlain
The Life in Letters of a Great Leader of the American Civil War
Written by Thomas Desjardin and The National Civil War Museum

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
On Sale: May 22, 2012
Price: $25.95
ISBN: 978-1-84908-559-5 (1-84908-559-5)

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain has been a central character in two feature films (Gettysburg and Gods & Generals), a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (The Killer Angels), and an inspiration for Ken Burns’ production of the highly acclaimed PBS series The Civil War. Chamberlain won national fame at the Battle of Gettysburg for his... Read more >

The Real Lincoln
A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
Written by Thomas DiLorenzo

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: December 2, 2003
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-7615-2646-9 (0-7615-2646-3)

Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, author and professor of economics Thomas J. DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president as a man who devoted his political career to revolutionizing the American form of government from one that was very limited in scope and highly decentralized—as the Founding Fathers intended—to a highly centralized... Read more >

Lincoln Reconsidered
Essays on the Civil War Era
Written by David Herbert Donald

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 13, 2001
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-72532-6 (0-375-72532-6)

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln biographer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has revised and updated his classic and influential book on Lincoln and the era he dominated.

When Lincoln Reconsidered was first published it ushered in the process of rethinking the Civil War that continues to this day. In the third edition... Read more >