Thornton (senior fellow, Ludwig Von Mises Institute) and Ekelund (economics, Auburn U.) introduce concepts from contemporary economic theory and apply them to the history of the American Civil War. Sidestepping the question of slavery, they primarily on questions of the Northern blockade, inflation, tariffs, and their impacts, describing, for example, how the fixed prices imposed by running the blockade caused relatively lower relative costs for luxury goods, thereby encouraging runners to concentrate on bringing luxuries into the progressively poorer South (dubbed the "Rhett Butler Effect" by the authors). Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)