World War II fought in North America between the USA and CSA. The defining split for this alternate history came 80 years earlier, when the Confederates didn't lose the American Civil War. This is the first book of the third series which started with the Great War series, which had seem WWI fought between the two American countries too.

War continues over the rest of the world too, in Europe and the Pacific, but the main focus is the conflict between the two American sides. It's full of characters from the previous six books, although Harry Turtledove isn't scared of knocking the odd one off for dramatic effect.

The CSA is ruled with an Iron Fist by the fascist Jake Featherstone and the Freedom Party. A surprise attack on the USA was supposed to finish them off, by splitting the country in two. By the end of the book, the USA was split into east and west, and under siege, not just from the CSA, but also the Japanese in the Pacific, the British in the Atlantic, the Mormons un Utah were in full revolt, and occupied Canada was also starting to stir.

The racist CSA was dealing with the Black problem, the best way they knew how. In a historic parallel to Nazi concentration camps, Black people in the CSA were being collected up into camps and underwent "population reduction", a euphemism for genocide.

The CSA won victory after victory in the war, but there were just the first signs of the advance slowing down, and the oppressed Black population was just starting to stir...

As an alternate history, this book and series shows a great understanding of the society and every day life of the times depicted, even if the politics and borders are different. Real life figures are peppered throughout to keep thinks interesting, like General George Patton, Joe Kennedy, and a Roosevelt.

Where the story is going to end up can quite easily be predicted, but Turtledove often throws a spanner into the works with the final outcomes of his books. The next three volumes will tell.