PositiveLos Angeles Review of Books\"... enlightening ... the most compelling portions of this book are those describing the passage of five separate bills as part of the Compromise of 1850, ultimately resulting in the fugitive slave bill becoming law ... Delbanco condenses the Civil War’s events into the book’s final chapter, which at times feels like a barrage of disparate details. Perhaps this is again to reiterate the unavoidability of war and the breakneck speed it maintained once fighting began. Even so, the author never abandons his lens, giving long-overdue credit to black soldiers in turning what began as a war for union into a war for freedom.\
