House Divided

A House Divided offers students of the Civil War era a sweeping interpretation of the defining crisis of America’s past that is readable and engaging from the first page to the last.Don H. Doyle, University of South Carolina, author of The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War (2014).Jonathan Wells’ A House Divided expertly introduces readers to one of the most complex eras in American history. Wells’s engaging, comprehensive, and balanced text, peopled with a broad range of actors, guides us through the changes and the continuities of the Civil War. He explains the causes, nature, and outcomes of the conflict with remarkable cogency, guiding readers through historians’ debates, and rooting his story in the words and actions of the era’s most important voices. Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies, Louisiana State University Jonathan Wells' textbook synthesis of the Civil War era succeeds in the difficult task of incorporating new research with traditional themes. As a consequence, students get a readable, state-of-the-art survey of the Civil War era in its full complexity.Frank Towers, University of Calgary, author of Confederate Cities (2015)

• Introduction: War: The Red AnimalChapter One: Slavery and the Long-Term Roots of the Civil WarChapter Two: The Sectional Crisis, 1830-1850Chapter Three: The 1850s, Secession, and the Start of WarChapter Four: The War BeginsChapter Five: Organizing and Mobilizing WarChapter Six: In the Grip of WarChapter Seven: Turning PointsChapter Eight: War on the Homefront Chapter Nine: The Union Grinds toward VictoryChapter Ten: Union Victory and African American FreedomChapter Eleven: Reconstruction BeginsChapter Twelve: Collapse of ReconstructionChapter Thirteen: America in the Late Ninteenth-Century