Words at War: The Civil War and American Journalism analyzes the various ways in which the nation's newspaper editors, reporters, and war correspondents covered the biggest story of their lives during the Civil War, and in doing so, they reflected and shaped the responses of their readers. The four sections of the book, "Fighting Words, " "Confederates and Copperheads, " "The Union Forever, " and "Continuing Conflict" trace the evolving role of the press in the antebellum, wartime, and postwar periods.