Part Four: Division and Reunion

Mon., Nov. 16 Manifest Destiny and War with Mexico

 
• Recommended Web Site: Mexican-American War Memorial Homepage

Wed., Nov. 18 Discussion Sections

• Required Reading:
  
  • Perman, Coming of the American Civil War, 57-69 (Donald), 188-203 (McPherson), 224-236 (Fredrickson)
  • Valley of the Shadow
  • Boyer, Enduring Vision, ch. 13
    
• Recommended Web Site: Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Virginia and Pennsylvania
• Questions: Were the North and South becoming more different socially, economically , and culturally as the nineteenth century progressed? If so, why? If not, why did sectional tensions intensify?
  

Fri., Nov. 20 Sectional Conflict and the Compromise of 1850

Mon., Nov. 23 Political Realignment of the 1850s

Wed., Nov. 25 Video: Roots of Resistance (10 a.m.)

Fri., Nov. 27 No class (Thanksgiving break)

Mon., Nov. 30 "A House Divided"

 
• Recommended Web Site: John Brown and the Valley of the Shadow
  

Wed., Dec. 2 Discussion Sections

• Required Reading:
  
  • Valley of the Shadow
  • Perman, Coming of the American Civil War, 90-113 (Holt), 113-129 (Stampp), 169-188 (Foner), 276-292 (Potter)
    
  • Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" and "Second Inaugural Address" (handout)
    
  • Boyer, Enduring Vision, ch. 14
    
• Question: Was the outbreak of the Civil War inevitable or might war have been averted by better political leadership?
  

Fri., Dec. 4 Secession and the Outbreak of Civil War

• Recommended Web Sites:
  • Crisis at Fort Sumter
    
  • American Memory: Selected Civil War Photographs
    
  • U.S. Civil War Center
    

Mon., Dec. 7 Slave Emancipation and Northern Victory

Wed., Dec. 9 Discussion Sections

• Required Reading:
  
  • Boyer, Enduring Vision, ch. 15-16 and Constitution of the United States, amendments 13-15 in the Appendix, xiii-xiv
    
  • Countryman, The Americans
  • Responses of Former Slaves to Emancipation (handout)
    
• Recommended Web Sites:
  • Gettysburg Address Exhibit at the Library of Congress
    
  • The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America
    
• Questions: What did the Civil War accomplish? Did the ends achieved justify the means employed?
  

Fri., Dec. 11 The Challenge of Reconstruction

Mon., Dec. 14 The Retreat from Reconstruction

Final Examination (take-home option also available)