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In this course, we will investigate the origins, conduct, and consequences of the American Civil War. To make sense of the conflict, we will spend the first six weeks of the semester surveying the political, social, economic, and cultural factors that accounted for increasing tension within the Union and how they accounted for its disintegration. As we study the war, we will look at the ongoing debate in both sections over war aims, how these aims changed over time, and how successful each side was at achieving them. Along the way, we will pursue the following themes that have featured prominently in Civil War historiography: the character of slavery; the role played by slavery in precipitating the conflict; the social and political divisions that plagued both North and South; the role of nationalism in both sections; the war as a vehicle for social and political change; the reasons for the Confederacy's demise; the place the conflict assumed in the general development in warfare; and the character of Reconstruction.
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Copyrighted
by Hugh Dubrulle, 2002
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