The author of an acclaimed account of the lives of children in the Civil War, Marten here provides a more comprehensive introduction to the civilian history of the Civil War. Concise, vividly written chapters describe the home front through the lives of individuals and the histories of events and institutions in the North and South. The stories are organized around five broad themes: the Northern home front, the Southern home front, children, African Americans, and the war’s aftermath. The case studies feature voices of the famous, like Edmund Riffin and Booker T. Washington, but more often they offer the testimony of ordinary men, women, and children.

A superb blend of traditional narrative, case studies, and individual stories, Civil War America is a valuable resource for students and their teachers seeking to understand the many ways in which the Civil War was truly a people’s war.