This might be my fault for not reading the jacket, but I was expecting to get more social history of the South with a good deal of discussion on Reconstruction. Instead, this book gives a bird's-eye view of the Civil War with a focus on slavery and African American issues. There are a lot of books that cover the war in a far superior way. ( )

Great history books weave the writings of the past into a narrative to help the reader understand and feel the events, emotions and motivations of those times. Bruce Levine has written a great history book!

The haunting parallels of his quotes and citations to today's events are shivering. Citizen's United and Dred Scot? The speech given by Rand Paul days ago at CPAC about men resisting invasion of their rights to their "property" and the words of the slave masters are hair raisingly similar. The moves to Gerrymander Congressional districts and restrict voting rights, the dogma of the Tea Party and right wing Republicans, the rationalization that poverty is only because people will not work hard enough or refuse to work hard enough are all eerily reminiscent of the Civil War era rhetoric about slavery and rights of the wealthy and powerful. Even the trickle down economic theories we hear on Fox News and the "job creator" nonsense are all old ideas used by those who use to own people, controlling them with "stripes" (lashing with rough leather whips). The vilification of Lincoln is often only a few words different than those used now for President Obama.

The slave masters controlled the majority of Southerners by ignorance, rhetoric and pleas for their unique "Christian" doctrine. When one looks at the makeup of the current majority of the US House of Representatives it is too weird to be coincidence. There are numerous quotes from slave masters which document their designs to stay in power and preserve a form of slavery through laws to control former slaves economically.

Oh my, what we will do to each other for money and power over our fellow citizens on our short time on this rock. Will we ever take a lesson from history to move forward? I thank Providence for historians like Mr. Levine. ( )

Although the book provided a lot of information gleaned from the writings of individuals during the Civil War, the book just seemed like it took forever to get through - I read a lot of non-fiction, especially books dealing with war time, but this one I seemed to struggle with. Also, although after going back and looking at the jacket and some online information, I was surprised to see this book covered only the Civil War period in the south and did not cover any changes in the south much beyond the end of the war. I guess I was expecting, based on the subtitle of "the Social Revolution That Transformed the South" that there would be more coverage of the true social revolution in the south that has taken place in the 150 years since the end of the war - but that time period was not covered. Not a criticism of the book as I should have looked at the description ahead of time.... ( )

Wonderful addition to the study of the social history of the Civil War. ( )

A much different perspective on the Civil War, focusing on slavery and Southern Whites' relationship to it. Levine makes clear, as do some other recent books, that slavery was the reason for the civil war and that the post-war Southern revisionist view of the war as a fight for states rights was nonsense. As this narrative shows, however, Southern planters (the largest slaveholders) certainly did employ states' rights as a reason not to heed the Confederate Government's calls to provide slaves to help the army, build fortifications, and in the last resort, become soldiers. In each case, the large planters reacted with fury about an over-reaching government taking their personal property! The author shows that the breakdown of the slave system within the South as invading Northern armies caused slaveholders to flee, losing most of their slaves in the process, was a major factor in the hard fought and overlong Union path to victory. Levine also shows how an overly forgiving North handed their lands back to the large slaveholders or to Northern entrepreneurs who hired ex-slave labor at rock bottom prices and began the exploitation that lasted, in its worse form, for perhaps a hundred years.

If you are worn out on the Civil War and Civil War books, you should still pick up this one and have your eyes opened a bit. ( )