The roots of the Civil War lay in politics, and specifically in the different attitudes of the North and South toward slavery. This book describes the steps by which those attitudes eventually led to the South's decision to secede and Abraham Lincoln's decision not just to fight to preserve the Union but, ultimately, to make the war a conflict to abolish slavery. It examines the war aims and politics of both sides, and goes on to explore the differing visions of how Reconstruction would bring the South back into the nation at the end of the fighting.