Biographer and historian Stephen B. Oates tells the story of the coming of the American Civil War through the voices and perspectives of thirteen principal players in the drama, from Thomas Jefferson and Henry Clay in the Missouri crisis of 1820 down to Stephen A. Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln in the final crisis of 1861.
Stephen B. Oates is Kendall Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts¿Amherst and has published eighteen books, including The Whirlwind of War: Voices of the Storm, 1861¿1865 (Nebraska 2012) and With Malice Toward None: A Biography of Abraham Lincoln. Oates is a recipient of the Nevins-Freeman Award of the Chicago Civil War Round Table for lifetime achievement in the field of Civil War studies.