Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction Book

"American Slavery is one of those offences, which, in the providence of God...He now wills to remove [through] this terrible war, at the woe due to those by whom the offence came. Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond man's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawing with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.' " - Abraham Lincoln

I read this textbook on the Civil War for school and it succeeded in giving me exactly what I'd been looking for in choosing this class: a better understanding of the war, race relations, Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the birth of tensions between the North and the South, including the Republicans and Democrats. While the detailed accounts of each major battle mostly went over my head, the heroic and cowardly acts of the men involved were not. I was shocked to learn how much I've always misunderstood, but I'm glad to be able to say I think I see this war in a much less biased way than I did once. But two things didn't change through reading this book--in fact, these two sentiments only grew stronger: 1) slavery is one of the worst evils of our world and 2) (this is my personal opinion after learning more in depth about him) had Abraham Lincoln not become president when he did, America would look very different today. In my humble opinion, he's possibly the best timed, most level-headed, most bold president we've ever had.