Akron Public Library

"Stephen Crane's immortal masterpiece about the nightmare of war was first published in 1895 and brought its young author immediate international fame. Set during the Civil War, it tells of the brutal disillusionment of a young recruit who had dreamed of the thrill and glory of war, only to find himself fleeing the horror of a battlefield. Shame over his cowardice drives him to seek to redeem himself by being wounded -- earning what he calls the "red...

"Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight. Her opinion...

Many of the most respected Civil War historians, and their changing interpretations of the conflict, including J. G. Randall, David Donald, James A. Rawley, and James M. McPherson, are excerpted. An introduction outlines the nation's antebellum history, the table of contents is annotated, and each essay is preceded by a brief summary. Outstanding features of the book are discussion questions and the appendix of documents that are sure to inspire additional...

Provides a day-by-day chronology of events of the Civil War, describes weapons used, and includes brief biographies.

Narrative and 836 illustrations cover the military and political aspects of the war.

The Civil War brings U.S. history to life, and puts a human face on the tragedies and triumphs that made the nation come of age. It captures the language and emotions of those turbulent times, from the eloquent speeches of Lincoln to soldiers' moving letters from the battlefront. It's a vivid reminder that the greatest stories are the ones that really happened.

"From the National Book Award-winning and best-selling author Timothy Egan comes the epic story of one of the most fascinating and colorful Irishman in nineteenth-century America. The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against...

When Confederate men marched off to battle, white women across the South confronted unaccustomed and unsought responsibilities: directing farms and plantations, providing for families, and supervising increasingly restive slaves. As southern women struggled "to do a man's business," they found themselves compelled to reconsider their most fundamental assumptions about their identities and about the larger meaning of womanhood. Drew Faust offers a...

Brings Lincoln to life by placing him in the context of his own personal background and the larger circumstances of the country's greatest conflict.