The University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University are pleased to Publish The Journal of the Civil War Era. William Blair, of the Pennsylvania State University, serves as founding editor.Table of Contents for this issue:volume 1, number 4: december 2011Articlesrachel a. sheldenMessmates' Union: Friendship, Politics, and Living Arrangements in the Capital City, 18451861bruce levine"e;The Vital Element of the Republican Party"e;: Antislavery, Nativism, and Abraham Lincolnjames l. hustonThe Illinois Political Realignment of 18441860: Revisiting the AnalysisReview Essaylyde cullen sizerMapping the Spaces of Women's Civil War HistoryBook ReviewsBooks ReceivedProfessional Notesbrian kelly & john w. whiteThe After Slavery Website: A New Online Resource for Teaching U.S. Slave EmancipationNotes on ContributorsThe Journal of the Civil War Era takes advantage of the flowering of research on the many issues raised by the sectional crisis, war, Reconstruction, and memory of the conflict, while bringing fresh understanding to the struggles that defined the period, and by extension, the course of American history in the nineteenth century.