American Civil War
The American Civil War Collection brings together a curated selection of titles focused on the 19th-century conflict that shaped America. Through forms ranging from biography to historical fiction, this Collection examines the roots and impact of the American Civil War, including the roles of enslavement and abolition.
This study guide references the 1990 Oxford University Press edition of James M. McPherson’s Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. The book is a collection of seven essays originally delivered as lectures, all on the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and his role in the Civil War (1861-1865). The book calls the Civil War era the “Second American Revolution” because, with Lincoln’s help, it brought about a fundamental transformation in the... Read Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution Summary
William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936) is one of the many texts in Faulkner’s oeuvre that is set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Faulkner is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, a designation earned due to his innovative and stylistic modernist techniques, which he uses to investigate the history and identity of the American South. Faulkner, who grew up in Mississippi and spent the majority of his life there, was deeply... Read Absalom, Absalom Summary
Across Five Aprils (1964) is a young adult (YA) historical novel written by the American children’s book author Irene Hunt. A coming-of-age story, the novel follows young Jethro Creighton through four years of his life from the beginning to the end of the American Civil War. Irene Hunt based the novel largely on the experiences of her own grandfather who, like Jethro, was only nine years old when the Civil War began.The book was Hunt’s... Read Across Five Aprils Summary
Ambrose Bierce, an American writer and Civil War veteran, wrote “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” in 1890. Bierce’s story was first published in The San Francisco Examiner and later became part of his collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians published in 1891. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is considered one of Bierce’s best works for its use of the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique and the hero’s journey as well as its exploration of death... Read An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Summary
Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War is a historical account of the secession movement in the antebellum Southern US written by Charles B. Dew. Dew is a distinguished professor of history at Williams College specializing in the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras. Apostles of Disunion was published in 2001 by the University of Virginia Press and won the 2001 Fletcher Pratt Prize from the Civil War Round Table... Read Apostles of Disunion Summary
“A True Story, Word for Word as I Heard It” is a short story by Mark Twain, first published in 1874 in the Atlantic Monthly. Mark Twain was an American writer known for such classics as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In its critique of slavery and racism, the story anticipates Huck Finn; it also explores themes of The Possibility of Human Connection, Black Women Defying Racism and Sexism, and... Read A True Story Summary
Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit is a work of historical fiction and children’s literature based on the true story of a young woman who pretends to be a man so that she can join the Union army during the US Civil War. The book’s target audience is ages 10-14, and it uses a simple style to appeal to a young audience. It is categorized as... Read Behind Rebel Lines Summary
Bull Run is a middle-grade historical fiction novel published in 1993. Written by Paul Fleischman, winner of the Newbery Medal and nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award Book, the novel uses 16 alternating Union and Confederate narrators to describe the Battle of Bull Run in the Civil War. Bull Run won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, was named a Best Book by the School Library Journal, and received several other awards. The... Read Bull Run Summary
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a YA novel adapted from the adult version, Manhunt, both by James L. Swanson. Manhunt is a meticulously researched nonfiction novel describing the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, and includes previously unpopularized transcripts, archives, and interviews. Published by Scholastic in 2009, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer makes these rare historical finds digestible for younger audiences and provides a rapid-fire, abridged version of the narrative of the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth.Those who only... Read Chasing Lincoln's Killer Summary
Cold Mountain (1997) is a novel by Charles Frazier. It tells the story of W.P. Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army who attempts to return home to his romantic partner, Ada. The novel won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name. This guide refers to the 2011 Sceptre edition. Content Warning: The source text contains discussions of racism, violence, abuse of women and children, and... Read Cold Mountain Summary
Confederates in the Attic is a non-fiction book written by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz. The book is a mixture of ethnography—the study of a specific group of people in a specific place—and travel writing, where Horwitz attempts to dive deeply into his childhood fascination for the American Civil War by traveling through the deep South, visiting Confederate battlefields, museums, and monuments, and interviewing the locals that he comes into contact with about their relationship to... Read Confederates In The Attic Summary
Dances with Wolves, a historical-romance novel by Michael Blake, was published in 1988. It tells the story of a Civil War soldier posted to the frontier who meets the buffalo-hunting Comanche people, learns their ways, and becomes one of them, fighting alongside them against the many threats they face. The book became the basis for a blockbuster film that won seven Academy Awards. The 2002 edition contains a Foreword by the author; the e-book version... Read Dances with Wolves Summary
Days Without End (2016) is a novel by Irish author Sebastian Barry. Days Without End is Barry’s ninth novel and received considerable critical acclaim. The novel won the 2017 Walter Scott Prize, was listed at number 74 on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best books of the 21st century (2019 edition), and made BBC News’s 2019 list of the 100 most influential novels. The novel also won the 2016 Costa Book Award, making Barry... Read Days Without End Summary
For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War is a 1997 nonfiction book by James M. McPherson. McPherson has taught at Princeton since 1962 and written numerous books on the American Civil War, including Battle Cry of Freedom, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History. After several instances of visiting Civil War battlefields and finding himself unable to satisfactorily answer why so many men gave their lives in the war, McPherson sets out... Read For Cause and Comrades Summary
Gone with the Wind (1936) is the only novel by author Margaret Mitchell published during her lifetime. It is an enduring but controversial classic of American literature, and according to one poll, its popularity among American readers is only exceeded by the Bible. Thirty million copies have been sold worldwide.The novel’s tale of the Civil War is told from the perspective of the wealthy planter class that ruled the antebellum South, a class from which... Read Gone With The Wind Summary
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad is a 1955 biography by American author Ann Petry. This book takes the reader on a journey through Harriet Tubman’s life, from her birth to enslaved parents on a Maryland plantation to her death as a free woman in New York in 1913. Tubman is a well-known figure in American history and is best known for her heroic actions as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. After escaping... Read Harriet Tubman Summary
The memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is an account of the life of Harriet Ann Jacobs, who calls herself “Linda Brent” in the narrative. It is a key text in the slave narrative genre, which were first-person narratives written by formerly enslaved people that hoped to convert readers to the abolitionist cause. While most slave narratives were written by men, such as The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1791), Narrative of... Read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Summary
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War is the third book by New York Times best-selling author Karen Abbott. Though Abbott has recently changed her publishing name to Abbott Kahler, because Liar Temptress, Soldier, Spy is still printed and published as authored by Karen Abbott, this guide will refer to the author by that name. Abbott often writes about American women’s history, focusing on overlooked stories, accomplishments, and contributions of women... Read Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy Summary
Life on the Mississippi is a powerful narrative concerning the past, present, and future of the Mississippi River, including its towns, peoples, and ways of life. The narrative is written by Mark Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Twain explains in the narrative how he “stole” this nickname from an old steamboat captain who was also a writer. Mark Twain is a nautical term and a pilot’s phrase that means “two fathoms.” Two... Read Life on the Mississippi Summary
The novel Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, published by Random House in 2017, offers a portrait of an American legend in mourning, surrounded by a poignant but funny cast of 166 characters. It is Saunders’s debut novel, though he has been a notable author of short story collections for decades. The novel won the prestigious Man Booker Prize and was a New York Times best seller.Set in 1862, Lincoln in the Bardo is... Read Lincoln in the Bardo Summary
Race and Reunion by David W. Blight was published in 2001. It is about the history of American Civil War memory, specifically focusing on the 50-year period (1865-1915) after the war’s conclusion. It centers the competing themes of racial equality and sectional reunion. The book won numerous awards, including the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Merle Curti Award, the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the James A. Rawley Prize. Another work by this... Read Race and Reunion Summary
Gary Paulsen’s young adult novel Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers highlights a young soldier’s experience in the Civil War. Many of the novel’s plot events are based on historical records, as is the novel’s main character Charley, who is based on the actual soldier Charley Goddard. However, Paulsen takes liberties within the story and notes that parts of the... Read Soldiers Heart Summary
The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation, originally published in 2003 by Oxford University Press, is a popular history book by American cultural historian Jim Cullen. As an overview and critical analysis of the American Dream, this book adds some meat to the bones of a traditionally ambiguous concept. Cullen maintains an optimistic outlook about the usefulness of the various American Dreams and about the promise of America, despite... Read The American Dream Summary
This guide is based on Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine,” available at The Atlantic website and originally published in the monthly in August 1887. Chesnutt was the first African American to publish in the highly respected monthly; he went on to also publish "The Passing of Grandison" (1899) and "Po' Sandy" (1899). Structured as a story within a story, “The Goophered Grapevine” is the history of a ruined North Carolina plantation as told to... Read The Goophered Grapevine Summary
