What are the main historians that have written about the civil war? I doesn't have to be recent, I would actually prefer a few that spread out through time to see the differences in their work. Thanks!
The most popular, straightforward account of the Civil War today is James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Here are some other innovative, influential, and relatively recent takes on the war:
Ayers, Edward L. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. [Creative use of primary source database, focussing on the border of Pennsylvania and Virginia.]
Faust, Drew Gilpin. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. [How did Americans understand the staggering death and suffering of the war?]
Gallagher, Gary. The Confederate War. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. [What was the Confederate perspective on the war? ]
Manning, Chandra. What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, 2008. [What did the soldiers on both sides think they were fighting for?]
Royster, Charles. The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans. Vintage Civil War library. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. [Dual biography of Sherman and Jackson, and the changing understanding of warfare.]
You can't miss Shelby Foote and in more recent years Gary Gallagher, Joseph T. Glatthaar and Allen Guelzo.