Why the Civil War Came brings a talented chorus of voices together to recapture the feel of a very different time and place, helping the reader to grasp more fully the commencement of our bloodiest war. From William W. Freehling's discussion of the peculiarities of North American slavery to Charles Royster's disturbing piece on the combatants' savage readiness to fight, the contributors bring to life the climate of a country on the brink of disaster. Editor Gabor Boritt examines the struggle's central figure, Lincoln himself, illuminating in the years leading up to the war a blindness on the future president's part, an unwillingness to confront the looming calamity that was about to smash the nation asunder.

With gripping detail, Why the Civil War Came takes readers back to a country fraught with bitterness, confusion, and hatred -- a country ripe for a war of unprecedented bloodshed -- to show why democracy failed, and violence reigned.

"The war's origin here reveals its many reflections". -- Booklist

"Certain to breathe new life into an old subject". -- Eric Foner, author of Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution and Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men

"Elegant, provocative, edifying". -- Kenneth Stampp, author of And the War Came and America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink