This study is the first to critically survey the changing and highly controversial historical literature surrounding the American Civil War era, from contemporary interpretations up to the present. The racial question was one of the central causes of the war; there was recognition of the need for America to conform wholly to the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." The book both analyzes historians' attitudes and assumptions, and suggests that each writer's perspective was partly determined by the dictates of time and place.
