This is a book I have long intended to read. The hard bound edition is 860 pages so it was a challenge. I have long had an affinity for books about the Civil War and biographies of Abraham Lincoln. This book starts at the Mexican War in 1847. The politics of this war shows clearly the persistent greed for more land and the lengths we would go to obtain it. More to the point, many of the best who fought in the Mexican War became the officers who would fight against each other in the Civil War. The fighting in the Civil War seemed to go on forever just reading about it! I had the same feeling in reading this book that I had in reading 1776. Even though I knew the ultimate outcome of the war, even as late as 1864 with the number of successes the south accrued, I kept feeling that there was no way the north could ultimately prevail. Both sides were battle weary by 1864 and the nothern Democrats were violently opposed to a war that by then included the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln's Republican party was splintered as well and a second term for Lincoln looked impossible. The taking of Atlanta and a series of victories came for the north in the nick of time to elect Lincoln for a second term. I had greater understanding of the reasons of "Sherman's March" and why the devastation through South Carolina was necessary to end the war. Worth the time. I'm ready for a few fluffy books now.