date with this endlessly fascinatingsubject. Brooks Simpson meets that need for the 1990s in America'sCivil War, a wonderful feat of compression in which he addressesall the great issues of the war in 200 pages of clear and readableprose. Rightly, he puts the military history of the conflict at thecenter of the picture, but he excels in relating the drama of thewar itself to the politics of both Union and Confederacy, to thestresses and strains-and opportunities-of the home front, and tothe great issues of emancipation and reconstruction. This book is afine achievement, and it will be invaluable not only to studentsbut to many other readers-and even Civil War specialists willbenefit from its fresh insights.–Peter J. Parish, CambridgeUniversity

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