Has there ever been a more unlikely war than the American Revolution? Why did those 13 colonies, with nothing resembling a unified and trained army, and with no navy to speak of, believe they could defeat the most powerful nation on the planet? See how issues such as logistics and the human factor can influence strategy, tactics, and the course of battle, and how happenstance can prove more important than even those factors. In The American Revolution, Professor Allen C. Guelzo offers a fresh perspective on this seminal event in U.S. history, offering the diverging views of two sides whose common heritage had yielded two very different outlooks.

Less than a century later, Americans once again waged war—this time against each other. The clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. Professor Gary W. Gallagher richly details the effects of the Civil War on all Americans. You learn how armies were recruited, equipped, and trained, and hear how soldiers on both sides dealt with the rigors of camp life, campaigns, and the terror of combat. You understand how slaves and their falling masters responded to the advancing war. And you see the desperate price paid by the families so many left behind.