A Nation Transformed : How the Civil War Changed America Forever

A Fresh Approach to the Second American Revolution

Called America's second revolution by some historians, the Civil War produced many changes that went far beyond military matters. In many respects, a different nation emerged from the conflict than the one that entered it. Professor William Hesseltine accurately described the war as "the fiery crucible in which the old nation was melted down and out of which modern America was poured." Nothing—from the nature of the presidency to the nature of social life, from how war was conducted to how public opinion was managed—escaped that fiery crucible.

A Nation Transformed is a comprehensive look at how the conflict changed the growing nation. Readers will be surprised at how deeply the war affected the United States, which was indeed transformed by it and would never again be the same.

Gerald S. Henig is a professor of history at California State University, Hayward, and a graduate of Brooklyn College, the University of Wisconsin, and City University of New York. He is the author of Henry Winter Davis: Antebellum and Civil War Congressman from Maryland and numerous articles on the political and military history of the Civil War.

Eric Niderost teaches at Chabor College in Hayward, California. A freelance author, he has published nearly 300 articles on various subjects in American, European, and ancient history.