Product Description

The new editions of Access to History combine all the strengths of this well-loved series with a new design and features that allow all students access to the content and study skills needed to achieve exam success.



This third edition combines two popular Access to History titles on the American Civil War to provide complete coverage of the lead up to war and its course. The first part of the book focuses on the nature of slavery, the build up of sectional tension in the period 1848-1856 and the subsequent rise of the Republican Party. It then goes on to examine the course of the Civil War in depth - including the detailed descriptions of key battles of the war, as well as looking at the war on the home front and the effectiveness of the Confederate and Union war governments. It concludes by analysing the nature of the outcome of the war - was it a Union victory or a Confederate defeat?



Throughout the book key dates, terms and issues are highlighted, and historical interpretations of key debates are outlined. Summary diagrams are included to consolidate knowledge and understanding of the period, and exam style questions and tips for each examination board provide the opportunity to develop exam skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #270025 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 217 pages

About the Author
Alan Farmer is an experienced author and teacher of A level History.

Customer Reviews

Access to history does it again
This series of books is great and this one is among the best that I've read - it is bigger and contains more detail than many of the others, encompassing the content from what were previously two civil war titles. The text is easy to read and clear and the book is packed with character profiles, maps, photos, cartoons and diagrams. 'Call-out boxes' and chapter questions encourage active rather than passive reading and I believe this has helped me understand and remember more of the details than might otherwise be the case.

A range of issues are covered, including: the home front, diplomacy, social conditions, economic differences between the north and south, the role of western expansion & the Mexican war, slavery and, of course, the military aspects of the conflict. The author takes, what I think is the traditionalist, position that slavery was hugely influential as a cause of the war.

If I were required to offer a criticism, it would be that the military history (doctrine, tactics, training, weapons etc) is not given as much emphasis as I would have expected. Overall, I highly recommended this book as an introduction to the US civil war.

A mine of information; good, but not great.
Now children, are you sitting comfortably; then I'll begin. The American Civil War was fought between two groups of people over the side effects of Slavery. The odd thing is that neither side actually liked black Americans. This book will provide a well balanced insight into the extremely complex social, economic and political reasons behind the American Civil War. It is so complex that I am coming to the conclusion that even historians don't understand it. History is more than facts; it is about people and what makes them tick. It seems bizarre that two groups of people will expend thousands of lives on a war about the effects of Slavery rather than the slaves themselves; remember it was a hundred years after the Civil War before black Americans were grudgingly given civil rights. The book tries to cover too many topics and therefore for those wanting a deeper insight into many of the complex questions may need to visit Wikipedia for more detail.