Fateful Lightning is a mid-length survey of the American Civil War. In this revision of his 1994 The Crisis of the American Republic, leading Civil War scholar Allen C. Guelzo covers a broad range of topics, including politics, religion, gender, race, diplomacy, and technology. Unlike other Civil War surveys, the book concludes with substantial coverage of the postwar Reconstruction and the modern-day legacy of the Civil War in American literature and popular culture.