The American Civil War

'Smith's The American Civil War skillfully integrates political, economic, military and social history in a narrative format that should suit students and instructors alike.' - Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University, USA 'An attractively written, well-informed and analytically sophisticated, but always accessible, account of the great crisis.' - Martin Crawford, Keele University, UK 'Adam I.P. Smith has written an outstanding one-volume history of the Civil War in the United States. in 229 closely printed pages of text, he gives thorough coverage to virtually all the important events and issues of the war, with well-informed treatments of social, political, military, and diplomatic history...For anyone who wants an up-to-date, comprehensive, and intellectually lively one-volume history of the U.S. Civil War, this volume is an ideal choice.' -Paul D. Escott, American Nineteenth Century History

This new interpretation of the causes, course and consequences of America's greatest crisis explores the complex relationships between the local and national contexts, between the experiences of soldiers and civilians, and shows how politics and public opinion decisively shaped the meaning and outcome of the war.The American Civil War was by far the bloodiest conflict in American history. Arising out of a political crisis over the expansion of slavery, the war set the stage for the emergence of the modern American nation-state. This new interpretation of one of the most mythologized events in modern history combines narrative with analysis and an up-to-date assessment of the state of Civil War scholarship.

The American Civil War:
- emphasizes the importance of Northern public opinion in shaping the meaning and outcome of the crisis
- argues that the war exposed deep social and political divisions within, as well as between, North and South
- explores the experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians, and the political and cultural context in which they lived
- sets this distinctively American crisis over slavery and nationhood in the wider context of the nineteenth-century world.

Concise and authoritative, this is an indispensable introduction to a critical period in modern American history.