Presented in 12 thematic sections, this visual history of America's epochal conflict features more than 500 items drawn from the unparalleled collections of the Library of Congress, including Mathew Brady's iconic photographs; period drawings, lithographs, and woodcuts; important manuscripts like the Gettysburg Address; political and theatrical posters; and ephemera like the contents of Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated. A running timeline notes an important-or intriguing lesser-known-event for each calendar day, while excerpts from diaries, letters, speeches, postwar memoirs, and other first-person accounts lend immediacy to the informative text. A vivid mix of words and images, The American Civil War: 365 Days captures the drama, the horror, the epic sweep, and the human toll of this unparalleled American clash at arms like no other book before it. Adult/High School This illustrated history is a best buy. The black-and-white photographs and color reproductions are of excellent quality and the narrative is clear as well. The book is organized topically rather than chronologically, which takes getting used to. The topics include: Irrepressible Conflict (the causes of the war), Gathering Momentum (opening battles), War in the East (Bull Run to Appomattox), Wartime Politics (North, South, and foreign), War on the Water, Fighting for Freedom (the story of African Americans), Turning Points, and so on. Daily occurrences that run consecutively on each page are never cued to the illustrations on those pages, and the events jump from year to year within the main topics. The pages are not numbered. The chapter titles are the months of the year, but chapter events are never related to the month of the chapter title. The index, however, is cued to the date e.g., Dred Scott is mentioned in the index on 1/12, 1/13, and 1/15, meaning readers will find him mentioned on pages January 12, January 13, and January 15. Idiosyncrasies aside, this is a uniquely high-quality visual history. Alan Gropman, National Defense University, Washington, DC Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introducing this calendar of Civil War images, notable historian Gary Gallagher remarks on several that affected him as a boy. The prospect for similar experiences may be the volume's prime recommendation, since it captures the war's immediacy as preserved in photographs, battlefield drawings, lithographs, paintings, and cartoons. Arranged in standard thematic groups, such as army life or slavery, these hundreds of images retain, as Gallagher notes, "enormous descriptive and interpretive power." Even avid Civil War readers will encounter scenes they haven't seen before, although introducing the war to newcomers is the practical effect of the author and picture editor's treatment. There is healthy representation of familiar portraits of Lincoln, Davis, and generals, for example. For text, in addition to thematic summaries, author Wagner faces each image with a page that explains its content or echoes it with a contemporary's quotation about the issues and events of the Civil War. This chromatic work is a marvelous addition to any general-interest Civil War collection. Gilbert Taylor Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Margaret E. Wagner is a senior writer/editor in the Publishing Office of the Library of Congress. The coauthor and coeditor of The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference and author/compiler of the library's annual Civil War calendars, she lives in Arlington, Virginia. Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia, author of The Confederate War, and editor of the Civil War America series for the University of North Carolina Press. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Used Book in Good Condition