SteveSheinkin

1856: Northern and Southern settlers attack each other in Kansas.

1858: Congressmen start sneaking guns and knives into the Senate chamber.

1860: President James Buchanan is heard wailing, "I am the last president of the United States!"

Get the feeling something big is about to happen? Welcome to the Civil War: one of the scariest, saddest, and occasionally wackiest stories in American history.

Filled with surprising quotes, startling stories, and all the strange events that don't make it into your textbook, this is history like you've never read it before: fast, frightening, and entirely true.

"While he provides plenty of material about military objectives, battles, and political and military leaders, such as the title's often-miserable Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, he also includes the stories of spies, drummer boys, women who masqueraded as men to join the army, and African Americans.... The author's very readable effort combines the clear prose, objectivity, and good organization of a textbook with a chatty style and stories and quotes that will make historical figures real to readers."
- School Library Journal

"Chatty and accessible, this book does double duty: it introduces Civil War history for readers who don't know much about it and supplies browsable commentary for those familiar with the big picture. Although Sheinkin apologizes for the dull textbooks he used to write in an author's note, his experiences give him the authority to tell the history from the inside, and a store of lively, interesting anecdotes, which appear here.... The horrors of slavery and battlefield slaughter are clear, as are achievements of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and many more."
- Booklist