Civil War Reawakened

A new book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening,  by Adam Goodheart ’92, recently reviewed in Harvard Magazine, was also the subject of  a searching, favorable review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Goodheart's volume, years in the making, explores the origins and beginnings of the war, whose sesquicentennial begins this year and will continue until 2015. "Many good studies about the struggle will be published, but few will be as exhilarating as 1861: The Civil War Awakening,” writes Debby Applegate in the Times. "Like many of the best works of history, 1861 creates the uncanny illusion that the reader has stepped into a time machine." Goodheart, director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, is a former Undergraduate columnist for Harvard Magazine and was one of its original Ledecky Fellows.