“One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.” – Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s election, sectional differences over slavery, which resulted in seven southern slave states individually seceded from the United States to form what was known as the confederate states of America, and questions over state rights and federal power erupted into the American Civil War. The Civil War lasted four years, from 1861 to 1865. Masur’s text successfully delivered a concise chronological history of the American Civil War.
Masur is an accomplished …show more content…
In just 94 pages broken down into six chapters, he details the origin of the Civil war, how it transpired, and what the union victory meant for the country. Though the Civil War was fought over a 150 years ago, historians are always exploiting the topic, in their literary works. In spite of the countless amount of literature on the topic, Masur text unlike most is, short but very effective, inexpensive and highly readable, but have a big impact. The book contribute to the field of history in that it is comprehensive history of the Civil war written in chronological order. For such a complex war as the Civil war, this book take a different approach making it extremely readable, and in no way dull. It can be read by a general audience. This means by junior high students to adults, or anyone for that matter seeking a general comprehensive knowledge of the Civil War, without the typical chronology of the civil war battles and participants. For Example, in the book chapters 1-3, The Origins of the Civil War, Then chapter starts the chronological narrative of the war from 1861 and the subsequent chapter with each subsequent year. Chapter slightly different, discusses the year 1865 and the