CONTENTS

Preface

Provenance of the Contents

1. Why the Civil War Still Matters

2. Mexico, California, and the Coming of the Civil War

3. A Just War?

4. Death and Destruction in the Civil War

5. American Navies and British Neutrality During the Civil War

6. The Rewards of Risk-Taking: Two Civil War Admirals

7. How Did Freedom Come?

8. Lincoln, Slavery, and Freedom

9. A. Lincoln, Commander in Chief

10. The Commander Who Would Not Fight: McClellan and Lincoln

11. Lincoln’s Legacy for Our Time

12. War and Peace in the Post–Civil War South

Notes

Index