The first phase of the Civil War was fought west of the Mississippi River at least six years before the attack on Fort Sumter. Starting with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Jay Monaghan traces the development of the conflict between the pro-slavery elements from Missouri and the New England abolitionists who migrated to Kansas. "Bleeding Kansas" provided a preview of the greater national struggle to come. The author allows a new look at Quantrill's sacking of Lawrence, organized bushwhackery, and border battles that cost thousands of lives. Not the least valuable are chapters on the American Indians' part in the conflict. The record becomes devastatingly clear: the fighting in the West was the cruelest and most useless of the whole affair, and if men of vision had been in Washington in the 1850s it might have been avoided. "Some may be disillusioned by this book, but they will be wiser for it. Jay Monaghan ought to get a medal for his work." (Webster Schott, New Republic). "This solid, extensively documented book is a fine corrective for the works of the sentimentalists...This is a good book, greatly needed." (Bruce Catton, New York Times). "The best thing about this book is its vitality...It is unfailingly interesting. It should inspire a whole series of biographies and monographs." (Henry S. Commager, New York Herald Tribune Book Review).