This remarkable publication provides a captivating andbrilliantly executed series of conversations among seventeen most impressivehistorians. These participants in a daylong conference focusing on the extraordinaryyears leading to the Civil War provide an incredible range of historical informationthat is both educational and exciting. Here is an opportunity to draw on a livelyexchange between a substantial number of knowledgeable and entertainingscholars." -- James Oliver Horton, author of "Landmarks ofAfrican American History