Videos

For the past 50 years historians have achieved a consensus on the interpretive narrative of the American Civil War: that slavery was the primary cause of the conflict, and that the war—while bloody—produced two great results: the abolition of slavery and the salvation of the Union. Beyond the war itself, the same narrative asserts that Reconstruction was a noble but failed attempt to bind up the Union and provide the basic rights of citizenship for the freed slaves. There is nothing inherently wrong with this account, but it is woefully incomplete and, therefore, misleading. In this engaging talk, Prof. Goldfield draws on original research to demonstrate that the American Civil War was the product of a breakdown in the nation’s political process. To understand how and why this occurred, he delves beyond traditional sources to reveal the profound impact of often-overlooked factors such as immigration and religion. These unconventional sources include sermons of leading ministers, accounts of religious conflicts, personal papers, political cartoons, novels and short stories, and the musings of period scientists. How these factors affected the political process, the war itself, and its aftermath form the core of an intriguing story that too often goes untold. We learn that the common portrayal of the North as the Republic of Virtue and the South as the Evil Empire betrays a reality that is considerably more layered, complicated and surprising.