20 Good Reasons to Study the Civil War

The Civil War was a unique watershed, not only in American history but world history. Since the last gun was fired before Appomattox, it has fascinated and mesmerized us, as vivid in our imaginations as it was real in the lives of those who fought it.

There are many compelling reasons to study that epochal event in our past. Not only is it absolutely unique in history, not only a watershed that defined us as a nation, but it was a war of important firsts, a war to save the democratic form of government and the freedoms that we now enjoy. It ended slavery in our country and pioneered new ways of waging war on land and on the water.

It catapulted us into a new industrial and technological world and destroyed and made fortunes. Its politics were fascinating and crucial. It gave birth to a new journalism and an impressive body of literature and tested our faith as nothing ever has.

This book, written by a noted Civil War historian, expands on twenty important reasons why the Civil War should continue to be a central study for us all.

JOHN C. WAUGH is a journalist turned historical reporter. After an eighteen-year career as a correspondent and bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor, reporting the twentieth century, he began instead reporting the nineteenth, specializing in his lifelong fascination, the Civil War. He has since written eight books about that pivotal passage in American history, among them the award-winning The Class of 1846, Reelecting Lincoln, Surviving the Confederacy, On the Brink of Civil War, and two titles from McWhiney Foundation Press, Sam Bell Maxey and the Confederate Indians and Last Stand at Mobile. He has also served on the senior staffs of two national politicians, former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. He lives in Pantego, Texas and can be reached at waugh@sbcglobal.net for interview.