On the Road to Total War is a collection of essays, originally presented at a conference of the same title, that attempts to trace the roots and development of total industrialized warfare (which terrorizes citizens and soldiers alike). Scholars from the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Britain focus on both the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects and the impact on local society of the American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification. Certain social forces, such as mass mobilization of people and resources and growing nationalism, led to this totalization of war in industrialized nations in the nineteenth century.

1. Introduction Stig Forster and Jörg Nagler; Part I. Basic Questions: 2. Was the Civil War a Total War? Mark E. Neely Jr; 3. The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification: the problem of comparison Carl Degler; Part II. Nationalism, Leadership, and War: 4. Confederate identity and the will to fight Richard E. Beringer; 5. Unionism and Abolition: political mobilization in the North Hans L. Trefousse; 6. The Prussian triangle of leadership in the face of people's war: a reassessment of the conflict between Bismarck and Moltke, 1870¿71 Stig Forster; 7. Union generalship, political leadership, and Total War strategy Edward Hagerman; Part III. Mobilization and Warfare: 8. The Civil War armies: creation, mobilization, and development Herman M. Hattaway; 9. African-Americans and the mobilization for the Civil War Joseph T. Glatthaar; 10. The Civil War economy: a modern view Stanley L. Engerman and J. Matthew Gallman; 11. Industry and warfare in Prussia Ulrich Wengenroth; 12. The Prussian army from reform to war Manfred Messerschmidt; 13. French mobilization in 1870 William Serman; 14. From limited war to Total War in America James M. McPherson; 15. Remarks on the preconditions to waging war in Prussia-Germany, 1866¿1871 Wilhelm Deist; Part IV. The Home Front: 16. Loyalty and dissent: the home front in the American Civil War Jorg Nagler; 17. 'The better angels of our nature': Lincoln, propaganda, and public opinion in the North during the Civil War Philip S. Paludan; 18. The permanence of internal war: the Prussian state and its opponents, 1870¿71 Alf Ludtke; 19. French public opinion in 1870¿71 and the emergence of Total War Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau; 20. Women and war in the Confederacy Donna Rebecca D. Krug; 21. German patriotic women's work in war and peacetime, 1864¿1890 Jean H. Quataert; Part V. The Reality of War: 22. Tactics, trenches, and men in the Civil War Earl J. Hess; 23. Daily life at the front and the concept of Total War Thomas Rohkramer; 24. At the nihilist edge: reflections on guerrilla warfare during the American Civil War Michael Fellman; 25. The wars against Paris Robert Tombs; 26. 'Our prison system, supposing we had any': the Confederate and Union prison systems Reid Mitchell; 27. French prisoners of war in Germany, 1870¿71 Manfred Botzenhart; Part VI. The Legacy: 28. The influence of the German Wars of Unification upon the United States Jay Luvaas; 29. From Civil War to world power: perceptions and realities, 1865¿1914 Richard N. Current; 30. The myth of Gambetta and the 'people's war' in Germany and France, 1871¿1914 Gerd Krumeich; 31. War memorials: a legacy of Total War? Annette Becker; Conclusions: 32. The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification: some parting shots Roger Chickering; Index.