publisher approached me and asked me about writing a new textbook to take the place of the old james c. randolph by then randall donald on civil war and reconstruction, perhaps naively and foolishly i agreed to under take that project. that evolved five years later into a college textbook ordeal by fire. at the same time van woodward approached me about writing a volume in the oxford history of the united states, which turned out after first going to be the guilded age reconstruction guilded age volume to be the antebellum and civil war volume and somewhat naively having signed one contract in 1976, i signed a second contract also in 1976, which, of course, enslaved me, i suppose one might say, for the next decade to research and write both those books. that experience growing out of also the kind of increasing awareness of the interconnection of social protests, social movements, politics and war was amplified by my experience in writing those two books, starting in 1976 and culminating in the publication in 1988 of "battle cry of freedom." i came to my point of view on the subjects that i was