American Civil War (1861-1865)

Trotter was a Black newspaper editor in the early 20th century who advocated for civil rights by organizing mass protests. Historian Kerri Greenidge tells his story in her new book.

Atlantic writer Clint Smith grew up surrounded by Confederate iconography, being told that the Civil War wasn't about slavery. He shares a poem from his forthcoming book, How the Word Is Passed.

Horwitz, who died Monday, spoke to Fresh Air in '98 about Confederates in the Attic, his book about the legacy of the Civil War. Plus, Maureen Corrigan reviews his latest book, Spying on the South.

Journalist Brian Palmer toured several Confederate sites and monuments across the South and found a distorted message that celebrates the Confederacy and often omits the fact of slavery all together.

In a his book, historian Bruce Levine says that from the destruction of the South emerged an entirely new country, making the Civil War equivalent to a second American Revolution.

Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for the film Lincoln, which focuses on the 16th president's tumultuous final months in office. Kushner read more than 20 books before writing about Lincoln, a man who had "an enormous capacity for grief that didn't deprive him of the ability to act."

In a new book, Civil War historian Bruce Levine says that from the destruction of the South emerged an entirely new country, making the Civil War equivalent to a second American Revolution. Integral to the Union's victory, he says, were the nearly 200,000 black soldiers who enlisted.

In her book The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, historian Drew Gilpin Faust writes that Civil War deaths -- both their number and their manner -- transformed America. She is featured in PBS's American Experience called Death and the Civil War, which premiered Sept. 18.

In The Long Road to Antietam, historian Richard Slotkin traces how both Northern and Southern strategies changed in the summer of 1862, when both sides committed to an all-out total war, and Lincoln squared off against Gen. George McClellan.

Historian Adam Goodheart explains how national leaders and ordinary citizen across the country responded to the chaos and uncertainty in 1861: The Civil War Awakening.