Paul Christopher Anderson is Associate Professor of History at Clemson University, South Carolina. He is the author of Blood Image: Turner Ashby in the Civil War and the Southern Mind (2002).
A Short History of the American Civil War will best serve nonspecialist readers and students in undergraduate survey courses stressing the ideas and societal values that shaped the American Civil War. * Michigan War Studies Review * Concisely introducing political, economic, and social matters, the author reduces battle detail in favor of analysis and enhances thematic interpretation. In a very real sense Anderson brings the story into the new century, making it relevant to today ... Recommended for all libraries. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. * CHOICE * Displaying a splendid gift for compressing facts without altering truths, Paul Anderson has produced a short history of the American Civil War that is long on quality and understanding. Lively, succinct, and perceptive, it is filled with sound, balanced judgments that make rare sense of a sprawling, complex, and crucial era in American history. A marvelous introduction to the war. * Daniel E. Sutherland, University of Arkansas *