I’m only asking because my granddaughter will be learning “stuff” about it this year. I want to be truthful to her so guess I have to do some digging. I always tell her to go to old history books....before FDR at least.
Old history books about the Civil War are often full of historical inaccuracies and partisan misrepresentations as much as - if not more than - post-WWII accounts.
Shelby Foote's The Civil War and James McPherson's Battle Cry Of Freedom are two good post-WWII histories that get almost all the facts right and are very readable.
Foote's book is sympathetic to the Confederate viewpoint and McPherson's is sympathetic to the Union viewpoint.
Together they present a good layman's overview of the conflict, in my opinion.
There are some history purists who scoff at the Time-Life Series on the Civil War - but years ago, I read that series before I did any in-depth reading on the Civil War.
I found it to be very useful.