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Title: The best single book on the Civil War
Review: If you are going to read only one book on the Civil War, read this. McPherson deals with the battles, as one must, but the real strength of the book is how well it deals with the various interrelated aspects of the War: the politics, the people, the homefront, the technology, the diplomacy. As McPherson explains in his introduction, one cannot really understand the Civil War if one ignores any of these factors. For example, one cannot understand what was happening in Lincoln's consideration of the emancipation, without looking at what was happening at the same time on the battlefield, in the political arena, and in the overseas diplomatic discussions. A final beauty of this book: its bibliography. McPherson not only lists his key sources, he comments on them, so that this book can serve as an excellent introduction for a full reading course on the Civil War.
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