The American Civil War

Catalog description

This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War. Lincoln described the Civil War as "fundamental and astounding" while attempting to justify its costs by promising a "new birth of freedom;" no other single event has affected the United States more. Topics include nationalism and sectionalism; slavery, race, gender, and freedom; total war; Reconstruction as an exercise in nation-building; the political, legal/constitutional, economic, social, intellectual, and moral consequences of the Civil War and its aftermath.