Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden (1786-1863) was a key figure in American politics and played a significant role in the Civil War era. While the senator's life and career have been well documented in various written works, much less attention has been given to his nine children, their divided loyalties to the North and South, and the effects of that division on the family as a whole. In this text, Eubank (history, Campbellsville U., Kentucky) combines a family history and a social history to explore why this Kentucky leadership-class family split over the issue of secession, how this influenced the children's relationships with their father and with each other, and the postwar reconciliation of the family. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)