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“The Coming Fury” by Bruce Catton. (Vol. 1 of Catton’s three-volume Centennial History of the Civil War; 13 cassettes, 20 hours.) Books on Tape. Perhaps the most widely read Civil War historian, Catton in this first volume commences with the turbulent Democratic presidential convention in Charleston, S.C., in the spring of 1860 (when the North-South breach over slavery and states rights could be seen to be irreparable short of war) to that war’s first large-scale battle, Bull Run. It is an engrossing narrative, swift and intimate, full of names and vividly sketched personalities--newsmagazine-style, but all embraced with a historian’s long-seeing and compassionate view. Michael Prichard’s precise reading, neither flat nor flamboyant, is well-matched to the author’s clear and unpedantic prose. Information: (714) 548-5525. ****