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Historians and the Civil War Era

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Title: Historians and the Civil War Era


1
Historians and the Civil War Era
  • Historiography and the quest for scholarly
    understanding

2
Some new surveys
3
General Areas of Scholarly Inquiry
  • Why did Secession and the Civil War occur?
  • What led to the triumph of the Union/the failure
    of the Confederacy?
  • Was Reconstruction a success or failure and whos
    to blame?

4
Causation
  • Contending Civilizations.
  • Fracture of the political system over slavery in
    the territories.

5
Contending Civilizations
  • Materialist School Charles A. Beard, The Rise
    of American Civilization Frank L. Owsley, The
    Irrepressible Conflict. (industrial north v.
    agrarian South).
  • Antagonistic Societies Eugene Genovese, The
    Political Economy of Slavery Eric Foner, Free
    Soil, Free Labor, Free Men.

6
Critique
  • Struggles to account for the timing of
    secession and the decision to challenge South
    Carolina over Fort Sumter.
  • Leads to a reductionism that the Union couldnt
    permanently endure half-slave and half-free.
  • Tends to create a binary of slave states and free
    states, which ignores how free states became
    free, how free they actually were, and mutes the
    tensions in the slave states about the future of
    slavery.

7
Beard-1874-1948
Genovese-1930-
8
Fractured National Politics
  • Avery O. Craven, The Coming of the Civil War
    Michael F. Holt, The Political Crisis of the
    1850s.
  • James G. Randall, The Blundering Generation,
    MVHR.
  • David Potter, The Impending Crisis.
  • Michael F. Holt, The Rise and Fall of the
    American Whig Party Jacksonian Politics and the
    Onset of the Civil War.
  • Michael Morrison, Slavery and the American West
    The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny.

9
Craven-1885-1980
Michael Fitzgibbon Holt
10
Critique
  • Suggests that war was a tragedy to be avoided
    through compromise.
  • Fails to account for how to end slavery.
  • Ignores white racism

11
Triumph of Union/Failure of CSA
  • Bruce Catton, The Army of the Potomac
  • Hattaway and Jones, Why the North Won
  • Gary Gallagher, The Confederate War The Union
    War
  • Russell Weigley, A Great Civil War
  • Frank L. Owsley, States Rights in the
    Confederacy
  • Paul Escott, Jefferson Davis and the Failure of
    Confederate Nationalism
  • William W. Freehling, The South versus the South.

12
Catton-1899-1978
Gallagher
Gallagher w/ J. W.
13
Other War Years issues
  • Lincoln as Emancipator LaWanda Cox v. Armstead
    Robinson, Vincent Harding Foner, Fiery Trial
  • Lincoln and habeas corpusMark Neeley
  • Guerilla war strategyPeter Berringer
  • Who was the best general? (everybody has an
    opinion, but only mine is correct Grant, Grant,
    and Grant, but Lee was good, too.)
  • Rich Mans War, poor mans fightNot. See
    Joseph Glatthaar, General Lees Army From
    Victory to Collapse.
  • Homefront studies (Gender, ethnic and class
    issues, and relationship between homefront and
    battlefield Stephanie McCurry, Confederate
    Reckoning)

14
Reconstruction
  • Dunning School
  • Progressives
  • Revisionists
  • Post-Revisionists

15
Dunning School
  • William A. Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and
    Economic
  • Walter L. Fleming, The Sequel of Appomattox
  • E. Merton Coulter, The South During
    Reconstruction.

16
Progressive
  • George F. Milton, The Age of Hate Andrew
    Johnson and the Radicals
  • Howard K. Beale, The Critical Year A Study of
    Andrew Johnson and the Radicals.

17
Revisionists
  • W. E. B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America
  • Eric L. McKitric, Andrew Johnson and
    Reconstruction
  • James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality
  • Willie Lee Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction
  • Kenneth M. Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction.

18
McPherson-1936-
DuBois1868-1963
19
Post Revisionists
  • Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long
  • Eric Foner, Nothing But Freedom Emancipation
    and Its Legacy.

Foner1943-
20
Critique
  • Reconstruction historiography is question driven
    and determined by the times of the questioner
    than the realities of Reconstruction.
  • No contemporary consensushow to link national
    policy with biographies of southern whites and
    blacks.
  • Best single volume Foner, Reconstruction
    Americas Unfinished Revolution (1988which
    should tell you something!)
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