America Goes to War

The Civil War and Its Meaning in American Culture

Bruce Catton

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780819560162
• eBook ISBN:
  9780819571878
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de la guerre de Sécession

The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian "ranges informally but authoritatively" across Civil War-related topics in a thought-provoking essay collection ( The New York Times).
Based on a lecture series delivered at Wesleyan University, these essays come from Bruce Catton, a New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author acclaimed as "one of America's foremost Civil War authorities" ( Kirkus Reviews). In them, he delves more deeply into the subject of the war and its meaning for America—addressing such issues as the psychology of the citizen soldier; the presidential career of Ulysses S. Grant; and what happens to civil liberties in wartime. He explores how the war compelled the nation to confront questions about race and democracy, and places the conflict in a wider context, identifying it as the world's first truly modern war.
"Nothing in our time makes the Civil War as alive as the writings of Bruce Catton." — The Baltimore Sun

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• The First Modern War
• The Politics of War
• The Citizen Soldier
• Making Hard War
• The Era of Suspicion
• The General as President
• The Heritage of Victory
• Index