Historians and the Civil War Era

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Historians and the Civil War Era

• Historiography and the quest for scholarly
  understanding

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Some new surveys
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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?

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Causation

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

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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.

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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.

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Beard-1874-1948
Genovese-1930-
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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.

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Craven-1885-1980
Michael Fitzgibbon Holt
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Critique

• Suggests that war was a tragedy to be avoided
  through compromise.
• Fails to account for how to end slavery.
• Ignores white racism

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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.

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Catton-1899-1978
Gallagher
Gallagher w/ J. W.
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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)

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Reconstruction

• Dunning School
• Progressives
• Revisionists
• Post-Revisionists

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Dunning School

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

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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.

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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.

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McPherson-1936-
DuBois1868-1963
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Post Revisionists

• Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long
• Eric Foner, Nothing But Freedom Emancipation
  and Its Legacy.

Foner1943-
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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!)