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McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom is a great introduction. Grant published his memoirs and they are highly readable.

I happen to be reading Battle Cry of Freedom right now, and I second its recommendation. Its wonderfully written, and its striking how many of the issues dominating the decades leading up to the Civil War feel very similar to the issues of today.

If you like history, I would highly recommend:

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson.

Probably one of the best books about the Civil War that has been written.

I'm not sure how you conclude that from even your quoted source: slavery, states' rights to own humans as property, and the westward expansion of slavery and slave-holding into the territories are all about slavery. Slavery was a root tension from the founding of the Republic with an earlier Civil War in the 1820's only staved off by the Missouri compromise.

Since you are one of the top HN posters, I encourage you to read the founding documents and speeches of the Confederate States, as well as reputable historical works such as McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom".

I think if you're really looking to get a sense of how the world works, the best stuff to read are journalistic accounts and histories. Just pick a subject your interested in, do a bit of googling on well regarded accounts of that subject, than go to town.

The reason I think these are more valuable than the pop psychology/business airport books is they don't operate under the pretense that the world's great truths can be boiled down to 240 pages. Rather, learning about people's experiences and stories on there own terms helps you develop a much more nuanced worldview.

For example, I'm reading The Battle Cry of Freedom, an overview of the Civil War, and it's astounding how much more insight a book about something 150 years ago offers into today's society than just about any of the Gladwell genre stuff.

That is an absurd take. For all fields, most people are on the outside. Historical work for most people - produced by those on the outside - is how our society and culture understands itself.

I recently finished an excellent one volume history of the Civil War, "Battle Cry of Freedom." It was written by James McPherson, a historian. This book has informed my understanding of not just the Civil War, but also the lead up to it. I believe this context is essential for understanding where we are now.

From a few angles:

* I read the Bible out of curiosity and ended up joining a church, so that's pretty consequential.

* Moby Dick and Journey to the West were probably the most sheer enjoyment I got out of books

* Learning C# 3.0 by Jesse Liberty is extremely dated at this point, and was dated even when I read it, but was the first book that made me "get" many basic OO concepts and taught me a language I've gotten a lot of professional mileage out of

* Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual and Sedewick/Wayne's Algorithms. Most people do algorithms in school. I learned about it while I was already writing programs for money all day, which means it deeply impacted the way I think about my work.

* Discrete Math with Applications by Epp -- I didn't read it all the way through but gave me the foundations to actually understand what the hell the books in the last bullet were talking about

* Battle Cry of Freedom by MacPherson was the first really meaty historical book I read. Turns out I like those a lot.

So many more but this seems like a reasonable place to stop for this discussion.

The evolution is not always slow: the Banking Act of 1863 transformed American currency very rapidly, for example[1]; as did the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694 for the pound.

Of course, your underlying point is correct - both these examples are coterminous with vast transformations in the two societies (the civil war and the Glorious Revolution), which equally were not dreamed up by a nerd in a basement.

[1] James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom has some interesting material on this.

I've also been reading The Battle Cry of Freedom and it's been amazing. The analysis and insights the author can pack into every single page is just incredible. And all those political, social, and historical insights have just as much applicability today. It really has been essential reading for understanding the major fault lines that have defined American life, and continue to do so in major ways.

I dispute the assertion that American goods were considered cheap knock-offs by the end of the 19th century. By the mid 19th century, the "American Style" of assembly-line manufacturing with interchangeable parts was considered to be the most efficient form of manufacturing [1] and was thereafter adopted in Britain and the rest of Europe. This method was derived from various aspects of the English system and was not invented in America, though it was first widely adopted there. Though there are well-known examples of industrial espionage, American innovation in manufacturing can be attributed a combination of vast natural resources, dynamic social structure, and widespread generalist education (as opposed to the apprenticeship system of Britain at the time) [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_system_of_manufacturin... (the article is sufficiently cited to support the claim)

[2] McPherson, James M. (2003). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-503863-7.