American modernization, 1800-1860 -- The Antebellum South -- The geological conflict over slavery -- Texas, Mexico, and the compromise of 1850 -- Filibusterers, fugitives, and nativists -- Kansas and the rise of the Republican Party -- The deepening crisis, 1857-1859 -- The critical year, 1859-1860 -- Secession and the coming of war -- A brothers' war: the upper south -- Mobilizing for war -- The balance sheet of war -- The war at home and abroad -- The springtime of northern hope -- Jackson and Lee strike back -- Slavery and the war: northern politics, 1861-1862 -- The first turning point: Antietam and emancipation -- The winter of northern discontent -- The second turning point: Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga -- War issues and politics in 1863 -- Behind the lines -- Wartime reconstruction and the freed-people -- Military stalemate, 1864 -- The third turning point: the election of 1864 -- The end of the confederacy -- The problems of peace -- The origins of "radical" reconstruction -- Reconstruction and the crisis of impeachment -- The first grant administration -- The southern question, 1869-1872 -- Social and economic reconstruction -- The retreat from reconstruction -- The new south

1. Reconstruction
2. United States -- History -- Civil War
3. 1861-1865
4. United States -- History -- Civil War
5. 1861-1865 -- Causes
6. United States -- History -- 1865-1898