An absolute monster of a book. I bought this when I had a gift card from Borders and didn't know what else to buy, and since I've always had an infatuation with thick, heavy books with a gazillion pages, I gave in and bought it. I never regretted it, but I've only scratched the surface on this book and can only imagine only the most die-hard American Civil War buffs getting the most out of it. But if you want to impress your friends, buy it and put it on your coffee table. Hell, it's so damn big it CAN be the coffee table! In all seriousness, though, this is an excellent book of scholarly work on one of our most important subjects. ( )