Charles Pierce Roland ranks as one of the most distinguished and respected historians of the Civil War and the American South.

Charles Pierce Roland ranks as one of the most distinguished and respected historians of the Civil War and the American South. A former president of the Southern Historical Association, Roland is the author of nine books, including An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War, the definitive biography of Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston, and a history of the South since World War II. History Teaches Us to Hope collects Roland's most important work -- some previously unpublished -- on secession and the Civil War, Civil War leadership, and the South in fact and myth, and also includes personal reflections by Roland about his own life and career.