HIS31730 American Civil War

Academic Year 2018/2019

This course is an overview of the causes, process, and outcomes of the American Civil War and the period that followed (known as Reconstruction). We will spend the first few weeks discussing the political, economic, and social dimensions of slavery, abolitionism, and sectionalism in antebellum America leading up to the war. This background will be tied to a consideration of the process of secession and the patterns of change that occurred during the war. We will examine the goals and strategies of both sides, the means they used to achieve those goals, and how the contingencies of war required changes to both means and ends. Finally, we will explore the political, economic, cultural, and social ramification of the war and Reconstruction, connecting these themes to developments in the late nineteenth century.
Our consideration of the war itself will balance military, political, and social developments. Battle tactics and strategy will be seen in relation to larger social and political aims. We will explore how developments on home fronts and battle fronts were integrated experiences that profoundly shaped the people living and fighting in both. Central themes will include: the growth of nationalism and political centralization; the agency of enslaved people, changes in race relations, patterns of economic mobilization and growth (including class competition); and the broader meaning that the war took on for participants and their descendants. Materials will be presented in a variety of formats, including lectures, images and video clips. Those along with required primary and secondary source readings will guide the seminar discussions.