Recommended Resources
The American Civil War
The books, articles, films, and websites in this section will enhance the materials included on our website for this era of American history. Many of the books are by the historians whose essays and lectures you have read and listened to here and offer in-depth studies of the topics that have caught your interest. The websites and other resources open new ways to explore American history and take advantage of new interpretations and new technologies to enhance classroom or at-home learning.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Conklin, Wendy. Battles of the Civil War. Primary Source Readers. Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Materials, 2008.
Rable, George C. Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1991.
Blackett, R.J.M. Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.
Rable, George C. Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Ayers, Edward L. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859–1863. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003.
Stiles, T. J. Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2002.
Pinsker, Matthew. Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Wilson, Douglas L. Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Bonner, Robert E. The Soldier’s Pen: Firsthand Impressions of the Civil War. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.
Recommended Resources from Other Sub-Eras
Foner, Eric, and Olivia Mahoney. A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1990.
McPherson, James M. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Kessner, Thomas. Capital City: New York City and the Men behind America’s Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860–1900. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
Siddali, Silvana R. From Property to Person: Slavery and the Confiscation Acts, 1861–1862. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
Rable, George C. God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Wilson, Douglas L. Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
Mintz, Steven. Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Trefousse, Hans L. Lincoln’s Decision for Emancipation. Philadelphia: 
Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 1975.
Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Patterson, Marie. Slavery in America: Expanding and Preserving the Union, Primary Source Readers. Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Resources, 1991.
Gallagher, Gary W., ed. Struggle for the Shenandoah: Essays on the 1864 Valley Campaign. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991.
Foner, Eric. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2010.
Oakes, James. The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
Delbanco, Andrew. The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.