Book summary

This companion volume to the highly successful PBS series contains the same inventive methods used by Ken Burns and his team in that famous PBS documentary: a strong narrative and a graphically rich selection of maps, newspapers, paintings, and over 500 vintage photographs--all of which make this history lesson an enjoyably enlightening experience. It is said that the true test of any war history is how the battles are rendered; here they are made clear and accessible in all their complexity and significance--Sumpter through Appomattox. The eminent historians associated with the project, including Shelby Foote and C. Vann Woodward, as well as the program's primary writer, Geoffrey C. Ward, thoroughly explore key issues and major personalities, but what makes this volume truly special are the voices of the ordinary men and women who lived through it, or died in the cause, available here through a vast archive of diaries, letters, and official papers that bring the time vividly to life.