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To: fnord
I have over 200 books on the civil war and related subjects. Here are some I recommend:

Antebellum, "roots of the conflict" books:

Cavalier and Yankee by William Taylor

The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire 1854-1861by Robert May

Antebellum ed. Harvey Wish. Contains "Cannibals All!" and "Sociology for the South" by George Fitzhugh, and "Impending Crisis" by Hinton Helper

Southern Honor by Bertram Wyatt-Brown

The Cotton Kingdom by Frederick Olmsted .

Life and Labor in the Old South by Ulrich B Phillips

The House divides byPaul Wellman.

The Freedom-of_Thought struggle in the Old South by Clement Eaton

The war itself (sets) :

Anything by Allan Nevins (8 volume Ordeal of the Union set, which covers 1847-1865)

Anything by Bruce Catton (Centennial history of the civil war trilogy, 2 volume bio of US Grant, Army of the Potomac trilogy)

One volume histories I like include:

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson

The Land They Fought for and Experiment in rebellion, both by Clifford Dowdey

The Confederate Nation 1861-1865 </U. Emory Thomas (pro south)

"A People's Contest" : Union and the Civil war 1861-1865Phillip Paudan (pro north)

Civil War on the Western Border 1854-1865 by Jay Monaghan

And :

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Jefferson Davis

Anything by Bell Wiley (he did works on soldiers of both sides, women , poor whites, and southern "Negroes" (his term, and that's part of the title), and how they lived 1861-1865)

The diaries of Sarah Morgan and Mary Chestnut (especially the first book)

I don't know what stance you take on the civil war, but if you're pro north , you'll love :

When the Guns Roared : World Aspects of the Civil War by Philip Van Doren Stern.

If you're pro south, watch your blood pressure. This book was so blatantly biased , I don't believe it's been reprinted once. That, even though there's always a market for civil war books.

A similar but much better book is :

The North, The South, and the Powers 1861-1865 by DP Crook.

Post civil war books :

The Mind of the South by W J Cash

I'll Take My Stand by Twelve Southerners

Baptized in Blood : The Religion of the Lost Cause Charles Wilson

The Lost Cause : The Confederate Exodus to Mexico by Andrew Rolle

Reconstruction Eric Foner

Masters Without Slaves by James Roark

And the Entire 10 volume History of the South Series, especially:

The Growth of Southern Nationalism By Avery Craven (vol 6)

The Origins of the New South 1877-1913 by C Vann Woodward (vol 9)

I think there's now a volume 11 bringing the history up to the 1970s.

There's some other good ones out there, but for a variety of reasons, these are the ones I most reread.

10 posted on 10/07/2001 10:03:19 AM PDT by kaylar
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To: kaylar
One I forgot

Southern History of the War By Edward Pollard.

Written as it happened, constantly reprinted .

11 posted on 10/07/2001 10:07:53 AM PDT by kaylar
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To: kaylar
Mild point of correction. The Grant biography is actually 3 volumes. The first volume was done by Lloyd Lewis and was called Captain Sam Grant. Lewis died shortly before the book was published and his widow prevailed upon Catton to make use of Lewis' notes and complete the trilogy. Catton did the last two, Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command.
67 posted on 10/08/2001 2:55:21 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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