The Civil War and World War I were fought only 50 years apart, though the perceived time between these two cataclysmic events seems far longer in popular memory. As part of an experiment to rethink and define these periods of American history, Wars Civil and Great explores the fascinating parallels between the two conflicts. What began as a conversation between colleagues in a bar, the book brings together rising scholars and established academics to question what legacy the Civil War left, how the World War I generation interpreted the lessons of the Civil War, and how both wars contributed to the modernization of the United States.