Civil Wars: Internal Struggles, Global Consequences

Clearly the best single volume treatment of civil war now available, Civil Wars is an admirable synthesis and analysis of theoretical, historical, statistical, and case study literatures. Useful as a textbook at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level.

Roy Licklider, Rutgers University

Olson Lounsbery and Pearson have written an accessible and comprehensive treatment of civil war. Their approach to crafting the argument—with breakout boxes and historical anecdotes—makes it a good fit for the classroom. The book is nicely organized and draws inference from a combination of empirical patterns and case descriptions.

Patrick Regan, Binghamton University

An excellent addition to the literature, Civil Wars is an indispensable tool for any student or scholar of the topic. It is a much-needed study of civil wars and the scholarship devoted to them. Pearson and Olson Lounsbery do a masterful job of highlighting the most important facets of the phenomena and surveying the extensive academic literature on each one. In spite of the breadth of the subject, the prose remains extremely readable—almost conversational—and will appeal to readers with an extensive background in the subject and to those without. The authors should be applauded for making a difficult subject more comprehensible.

Andrea Kathryn Talentino, Drew University