Historiographical Debate

1
Historiographical Debate

• Origins of the U.S. Civil War
• Why does peace fail?
• Why did peace fail in the U.S. in 1861

Guiding Question
2

• Historical Perspectives
• Intentialism
• Structuralism
• What do historians have to say about the origins
  of the Civil War?

3
Slave Power Thesis
Traditionalist school of thought (Orthodox)

• Russell- Fettered Freedom (1940s)
• Subverting civil rights-The lawless and
  barbarism of slavery provided the necessary
  conditions for Civil War
• Henry Wilson
• -Existed an unwritten agreement among
  slaveholders to force slavery on the nation and
  extend it indefinitely

4
Defensive South Thesis

• Frank Owsley- Egocentric Sectionalism
• Our nation state was built not upon the
  foundations of a homogenous land and people, but
  upon geographical sections.
• C.S. Boucher -The Aggressive Slaveocracy
• Thesis Act of Self-Defense
• -Civil War began because South was trying to
  defend themselves against the aggressive action
  of the Northern Abolitions

5
Economic Sectionalism
Marxist Intentialist Perspective

• A. Simmons(1906)- Class Struggles in America
• Materialism vs. Aristocracy
• The republican party exactly corresponded to
  industrial interest.
• Thesis Once northern industry had developed
  conflicted with entrenched southern aristocracy.
• James McPherson (1980s)- Ordeal by Fire
• The southern economy grew but did not develop.

6
Blundering Politicians Thesis

• Thesis War was unnecessary. Slavery not a cause
  of War. Real cause of the war political error.
• Charles Ramsdel
• - Slavery would have died of natural causes.
  Civil War about incompetent politicians.
• David Donald- An Excess of Democracy
• -Politicians did make bad decisions, but they
  were products of ante-bellum society a society
  atomized without restraint
• James G. Randall- A Blundering Generation
• When people rub their eyes and find they have
  been dragged into war there is some point some
  psychopathic case.
• -U.S. stumbled into War

7
Slavery The Cause of War

• James Rhodes
• It may be safely be asserted that there was a
  single cause, slavery.
• Arthur Schlesinger, JR.
• -The moral issue of slavery could only be solved
  by force. A savage fraternal conflict
• Kenneth Stampp
• - Slavery was at the heart of sectional
  conflict.

8
Majority Rule Thesis

• Avery Craven (1950s)
• - Civil War represented breakdown of the
  democratic process

9
Conflict of Cultures Thesis
Southern Gentleman Thesis

• Hamilton J. Eckenrode
• - Emphasized the impact of a subtropical
  environment on the white southerner-produced a
  new breed of man known as tropical Nordics
• Rollin G. Osterweis
• - Southern romanticism was a determinant of a
  romantic nationalism that developed into
  sectionalism
• Phillips- Fundamentally a conflict between white
  supremacists and blacks
• Stephen Channing- Fear of black immigration

10
Southern Honor Thesis

• Brown- Yankee Saints and Southern Sinners
• Youve got to put slavery in the context of the
  concept of Southern Honor
• Was a serious self-perceived honor in South
  that led to the war.

11
States Right and Nationalism Thesis

• Thesis States Rights Violated-Direct Cause of
  Civil War
• States older than the nation
• Conflict rooted in the constitution and differing
  interpretations of the subversion of the rights
  of states
• Phillip Powadan (1970s)- The American Civil War
  Considered as a Crisis in Law and Order
• Men wanted to preserve government, to continue
  to be free.
• Thesis Critical question was not why South
  seceded, but why the North resisted secession?
• Major Reason (Intentialist perspective)- Lincoln
  wanted to preserve democratic law and order