Walter McDougall, author of Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era — 1829–1877, tells John J. Miller what got him to add yet another Civil War volume to an inventory that is already quiet extensive: “Harper Collins wanted someone to write [about the war with a] moderate, and scholarly, and balanced approach that also took into account all of the latest literature that’s been done on American history. . . . I finally decided that there were so many interesting things I wanted to learn about American history, much less tell other people, that I finally agreed.”