Non-Fiction

Sears (very interested).

Folks should add their own essential CW readings to this thread. In fact, that's what I'll do one of these days. I'll first have to think about which books really are "essential", though.

From the top of my head -

James L. Huston - Calculating the Wort of the Union

Aaron Astor - Rebels on the Border

Bruce Leviner - Confederate Emancipation

Grady MacWhiney - Attack and Die (heavily disputed, but it's so darn convincing that it's a shame that the main thesis doesn't hold true)

Webb B. Garrison - Women of the Civil War (Gives a good overview; there are fantastic yet not-often read books about women in the Civil War - an under-studied albeit highly interesting topic).

I will edit this post, or post some new suggestions, as soon as I get a quiet minute to take a look at my shelves. It's really hard to remember author and exact title over the years, so these are just the ones that I correctly remember and that I deem "essential".

I'm highly curious about tips that other people might have. Although it's hard to say what's essential. Often enough, the un-essential proves quite essential after some time.