THE CIVIL WAR

This —interactive— package seems a little too cute at first—with pop-up inserts such as an excerpt from the diary of Mary Chestnut or a sweet little tale of Abraham Lincoln warmly greeting his friend Confederate General George Pickett’s baby. But in bringing out the voices or all the participants in the Civil War—from Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin to a note left by John Brown before his execution to soldiers— letters home—this illustrated volume doesn—t shy away from the hard stuff: a gruesome photo of a skeletal soldier who had been imprisoned at the notorious Andersonville camp leaves no doubt as to the brutality of the war. Definitely a beginner’s introduction to the Civil War, but attractively done.