Napoleon defined history as "fiction agreed upon". It's written by victors and often one-sided. This book tells a story from the other side. It shakes the foundation of everything you've been taught about the American "Civil War". To begin with, Samuel Steel explains why the phrase "Civil War" is misleading, and gives the struggle an appropriate name. He argues that the seceded states were exercising their constitutional rights, and that the real reason behind war was not, as most people believe, slavery. "Slavery could not long have survived in the South with the sentiment of the whole outside world, and multitudes of its own people, against it." He questions the sincerity of Webster's celebrated speech which became a school classic. He paints a realistic picture of Southerners at the time, intelligent human beings who fought on principle, not semi-barbarians who owned slaves. Steel is an accurate and thorough man. His arguments are well founded and thought evoking. You will find much truth here if you're open minded enough. "To say that the South was wrong simply because the North won, is to cast a serious reflection on the intelligence of such men as Lee, and many others."