A gripping and original account of how the Civil War began and a second American revolution unfolded, setting Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom.
 
An epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields, 1861 introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German

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Chronicles the history of the American Civil War, starting with the Democratic Party's Charleston Convention in 1860, and ending with first battle of the war at Bull Run.

From the author of The Class of 1846: "A swift-paced narrative of Lincoln's pre-presidential life." -The Washington Post Book World The award-winning historian John C. Waugh takes us on Lincoln's road to the Civil War. From Lincoln's first public rejection of slavery to his secret arrival in the capital, from his stunning debates with Stephen Douglas to his more contemplative moments, Waugh shows us America as Lincoln saw it and as Lincoln described...

The second episode in this award-winning trilogy impressively shows how the Union and Confederacy, slowly and inexorably, reconciled themselves to an all-out war--an epic struggle for freedom.

Discusses the events leading to the civil war, from the South Carolina secession convention to the fighting at Fort Sumter.

In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom." Where past scholars have limned the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere. As the Second Great Awakening surged through America, political questions became...

The Civil War is the first full scale film history of the terrible conflict that tore the country apart and defined us as a nation. Discusses various battles and their impact on a divided country.