 | Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States) by James M. McPherson
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $7.50 Best one volume history of the Civil War. Covers almost every aspect of the era. Read this book first!
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 | The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 by David M. Potter
Buy new: $15.30 / Used from: $4.00 Best one volume of the ante-bellum era and the crisis that spawned the Civil War.
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 | Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South by Kenneth M. Stampp
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $2.00 Best one-volume on slavery. One of the great classics of American history.
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 | For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War by James M. McPherson
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $5.80 Great insights into reasons the men fought.
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 | How the North Won: A MILITARY HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR by Herman Hattaway
Buy new: $17.79 / Used from: $15.00 Best one volume on United States military strategy in the Civil War.
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 | Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Buy new: $13.60 / Used from: $4.15 Best one volume biography of Lincoln. Highly recommended.
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 | The Confederate War by Gary W. Gallagher
Buy new: $17.50 / Used from: $7.88 Answers the question of how the Confederacy lasted for 4 long years despite immense difficulties.
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 | Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant (Modern Library War) by Ulysses S. Grant
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $2.92 Sets standard for future military memoirs. Written while Grant was dying, it's full of his insights.
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 | Mary Chesnut's Civil War by Mary Chesnut
Buy new: $16.50 / Used from: $3.49 Absolutely a great diary chock full of daily insights, intrigues, gossip, and reaction to the times. Great book.
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 | The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command (Midland Book) by Edward Hagerman
Buy new: $19.95 / Used from: $5.98 My favorite study of Civil War strategy, logistics, organization, and command.
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 | Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $5.52 Best one volume modern biography of Lee. Shows Lee as a man of immense talents and a few flaws.
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 | Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander by Edward Porter Alexander
Buy new: $24.50 / Used from: $11.95 A most insight memoir by an extremely talented Confederate officer. Very fair and balanced and huge pleasure to read.
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 | Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command by Douglas Southall Freeman
Buy new: $23.10 / Used from: $12.99 Excellent history of Lee's senior command and the Army of the Northern Virginia. Look beyond Freeman's hero worship of Lee. It's still a great book.
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 | Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West (Modern War Studies) by Steven E. Woodworth
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $4.89 The reasons why the Confederacy failed so miserably in the western theater is discussed throughly.
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 | The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by James M. Mcpherson
Buy new: $11.66 / Used from: $5.80 How African-Americans felt about the Civil War. An older book that holds up well.
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 | The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command by Edwin B. Coddington
Buy new: $17.16 / Used from: $11.78 Best one volume history on Gettysburg. Published in 1968, it still sets a high standard for campaign studies by its research, accuracy, and insights.
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 | A Stillness at Appomattox (Army of the Potomac, Vol. 3) by Bruce Catton
Buy new: $12.44 / Used from: $0.01 Like all 3 volumes of the Army of Potomac trilogy, Catton's narrative soars. Reads like a novel.
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 | Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union by Bell Irvin Wiley
Buy new: $15.71 / Used from: $1.00 Like its companion book, Life of Johnny Reb, they are both "must reads" to understand the life of the common soldier during the war.
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 | The Iron Brigade: A Military History (Great Lakes Connections: The Civil War) by Alan T. Nolan
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $3.94 No list of civil war books should be without a unit history. This is the best I've read. It still sets the standard 30 years after publication.
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 | Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Modern War Studies) by Albert E. Castel
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $9.99 Best study of the Atlanta Campaign that assured Lincoln's re-election. One of the best campaign studies yet written.
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 | Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend by James Robertson
Buy new: $29.70 / Used from: $8.40 The best biography of the eccentric but extremely talented Stonewall.
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 | Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War by Gerald Linderman
Buy new: $21.95 / Used from: $1.94 Great book on Civil War combat. Must read for understanding what those men thought and felt under fire.
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 | Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History) by James M. McPherson
Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $0.91 Best one volume on the bloodiest day in American history. Especially well written and focuses on the political currents of 1862 when the war and emancipation hung in the balance.
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 | Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War by Larry J. Daniel
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $1.69 Another excellent campaign study. Shiloh changed how people on both sides viewed the war.
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 | Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills
Buy used from: $0.05 Absolutely a great book on the Gettysburg Address and its meaning in American history
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