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.