Mongoose:

I agree, McPherson’s book is a fine one-volume work. I’ve had it a while – read it for the second time last year. Read Catton’s trilogy many years ago and have been wondering if I ought to re-visit it.

One of my great-grandfathers was orphaned at age 10 in Georgia during the Civil War. He later came to Oklahoma with his 15-yr-old bride, became a Methodist circuit rider, fathered 12 kids, and according to family legend was the first Democrat (all others being Populists) elected in Oklahoma. So as the joke has it, until I was in my teens I thought damnyankee was one word. How things change – I don’t know a single family member now who’s not a conservative Republican.