Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1846-1877
This booklist is taken from a course taught by David Blight of Yale University that explores 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: national, sectional, racial, constitutional, individual, social, intellectual, or moral. Four broad themes are closely examined: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problem, personal experience, and social process; the experience of modern, total war for individuals and society; and the political and social challenges of Reconstruction. You can download the lectures of Professor Blight for free from the internet.
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Gallagher argues that the South fought the Civil War using every available resource, but they were just overcome by northern industrial and manpower superiority.
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Blight replaced this novel with The March by Doctorow in later versions of this class, but one can't go wrong with reading Shaara's novel abotu Gettysburg, which inspired Ken Burns to produce his series on the Civil War.
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