This course will explore the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877. The primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple meanings of a transforming event in American history. Those meanings may be defined in many ways: national, sectional, racial, constitutional, individual, social, intellectual, or moral. We will especially examine four broad themes: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic, the issue of enslavement as a national issue, the experience of modern, total war, and the challenges of Reconstruction. The course attempts in several ways to understand the interrelationships between the histories of the nation, states, and individuals, and finally, we hope to probe the depths of why the Civil War era has a unique hold on American historical memory.
- Professor: Erica Jameson