"Now featuring a new Afterword by the author, this handy paperback edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom is without question the definitive one-volume history of the Civil War.

James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight,

The greatest of all Civil War campaigns, Gettysburg was the turning point of the turning point in our nation's history. Volumes have been written about this momentous three-day battle, but recent histories have tended to focus on the particulars rather than the big picture: on the generals or on single days of battle—even on single charges—or on the daily lives of the soldiers. In Gettysburg Sears tells the whole story in a single volume.

In the third and final volume of this magnificent history, Shelby Foote brings to a close the story of four years of turmoil and strife that altered American life forever. Following the events of the war from 1862–1864, Foote discusses the strategies of both the North and the South and assesses the performance of the Union generals. The volume opens with the beginning of the two final, major confrontations of the war: Grant against Lee in