Horwitz: "150 Years of Misunderstanding the Civil War."

In a thoughtful essay, the author of Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War suggests that "the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is too narrow a lens through which to view the conflict."

He's probably right.

150 Years of Misunderstanding the Civil War, by Tony Horwitz (The Atlantic)

 ... It's hard to argue with the Gettysburg Address. But in recent years, historians have rubbed much of the luster from the Civil War and questioned its sanctification. Should we consecrate a war that killed and maimed over a million Americans? Or should we question, as many have in recent conflicts, whether this was really a war of necessity that justified its appalling costs?