Every single time I start to write a review for Battle Cry for Freedom I come up with the same word - "comprehensive". It seems as if everyone and their brother uses this same word when writing a review. I guess it's appropriate because it definitely fits. Said another way: if the era, the climate of the times before, during and after the Civil War was an inanimate object it's as if McPherson studied it from every possible angle; getting on his knees, using a ladder to stand over it, circling around and around it to describe every little thing he sees, careful to leave not a single observation out. The end result is a comprehensive (there's that word again) view of what our fledgling country looked like. You'll meet Fire Eaters, Know Nothings, Butternuts, Copperheads, Knights of the Golden Circle, Whigs and the Free Soil Party in addition to the usual suspects like Robert E. Lee, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and John Brown, just to name a few. You'll see the country from an early economic and sociological standpoint. Industry and religion find their way into patriotism and what it meant to be independent. ( )