OBERLIN COLLEGE
Department of History
Gary Kornblith
History 300
Rice 18
Fall 2011
gary.kornblith@oberlin.edu

Office hours: Thurs., 3-4:30 pm
 and by appointment
The American Civil War and Reconstruction




For the official, up-to-date version of this syllabus, go to http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/gkornbl/H300F11.

Less than a century after fighting for independence from Great Britain and establishing a federal republic, Americans turned their firearms on each other in the bloodiest war in the nation's history. At the end of hostilities, over six hundred thousand soldiers lay dead while approximately four million former slaves enjoyed legal freedom for the first time. Thereafter Americans struggled to reorganize their society and redefine their polity in response to the changes wrought by the Civil War's violence and to the conflicts that endured in peace.

This course focuses on three interrelated subjects: the causes of the Civil War; the dynamics of the war and emancipation; and the outcomes of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Beyond coverage of this subject matter, the course is designed to promote three major learning objectives:

  • A grasp of important issues, trends, and controversies in recent scholarship on the Civil War and Reconstruction.
  • An understanding of how historians develop interpretations based on research in primary sources and the application of analytic models.
  • A capacity to make independent judgments after careful consideration of available evidence, alternative scholarly interpretations, and an honest reexamination of one's preconceptions and biases.

Throughout the semester, students are expected to draw their own conclusions about the meaning and significance of events that continue to provoke popular passions and intellectual argument more than a century after they occurred.

Format: The class meets regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-2:50 pm. Most class sessions will be devoted to group discussion, and attendance at discussion sessions is mandatory. Students are also required to post a question for class consideration on Blackboard by 9 am before each discussion session.

Evaluation: Students will be graded on the basis of one position paper (5-6 pp.), a research project prospectus (2-3 pp.), a research project progress report (2-3 pp.), an oral presentation of research findings (12-15 minutes), a polished research paper (18-20 pp.), and class participation, including Blackboard postings. The standard formula for determining final grades will be 15% for the position paper, 5% for the prospectus, 5% for the progress report, 5% for the oral presentation, 50% for the research paper, and 20% for class participation. The instructor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in assigning final grades.

Honor Code: All course work is governed by Oberlin's Honor Code. If you have a question about how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, you should ask the professor in advance of the due date.

Accommodation for students with special needs: With the assistance of the Office of Disability Services, the instructor will provide appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and special needs. Students should notify the instructor at the start of the semester if they desire such accommodation.

Purchases: The following books should be purchased. They are available at the Oberlin Bookstore and elsewhere.

  • Louis Masur, The Civil War: A Concise History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011)
  • Michael F. Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s (1978; New York: W.W. Norton, 1983)
  • Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
  • Abraham Lincoln, Great Speeches (New York: Dover Publications, 1991)
  • Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over (New York: Vintage, 2007)
  • Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: Harper & Row, 1990)
  • Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010)
  • Steven Hahn, A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (Cambridge: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 2003)

Tues, Sept. 6

Introduction

Thurs., Sept. 8


Battle of Ft. Sumter
Battle of Fort Sumter

Discussion: A Quick Overview of the Civil War and Reconstuction

  • Masur, The Civil War, entire [purchase]

 
Coming of the Civil War  

Tues., Sept. 13

1850 Map

Discussion: Democracy, Slavery, and American Exceptionalism

  • David Herbert Donald, "An Excess of Democracy: The American Civil War and the Social Process," in Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era, 3rd ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), 44-62 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, 1-38 [purchase]
  • William W. Freehling, "The Divided South, Democracy's Limitations, and the Causes of the Peculiarly North American Civil War," in Gabor S. Boritt, ed., Why the Civil War Came (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 125-175 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]

Thurs.., Sept. 15


Oak Alley Plantation

Discussion: Social Dynamics of the "Slave South"

  • Eugene D. Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South, 2nd ed. (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989), 3-39, 157-179, 243-274 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Robert William Fogel, Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), 60-113 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 78-116[under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
Sat., Sept. 17 Walking tour of Oberlin's Civil War monuments (Meet in lobby of King building at 11 am)

Tues., Sept. 20

New England Cotton Mill
New England Cotton Mill

Discussion: Social Dynamics of the "Free North"

  • Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 1-39 [purchase]
  • James Brewer Stewart, "The Emergence of Racial Modernity and the Rise of the White North, 1790-1840," Journal of the Early Republic 18 (Summer 1998): 181-217 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
  • Sven Beckert, "Merchants and Manufacturers in the Antebellum North," in Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, eds., Ruling America: A History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 92-122 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]

 

Thurs., Sept. 22


Republican Campaign Poster 1856

Discussion: The Political Crisis of the 1850s (I)

  • Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 73-102, 261-317 [purchase]
  • Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, 39-138 [purchase]
  • Primary Document: "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" (1854) [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]

 

Tues., Sept. 27

Introduction to Research Project (Meet in Mudd 456)

Thurs., Sept. 29

1860 Lincoln-Hamlin Poster
Republican Campaign Poster, 1860

Discussion: The Political Crisis of the 1850s (II)

  • Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, 139-217 [purchase]
  • Marc Egnal, "The Beards Were Right: Parties in the North, 1840-1860," Civil War History 47 (March 2001): 30-56[under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Gary J. Kornblith, "Rethinking the Coming of the Civil War: A Counterfactual Exercise," Journal of American History 90 (June 2003): 76-105 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]

Fri., Sept. 30

Dinner and video at Prof's house

Tues., Oct. 4

Frederick Douglass, 1856
Frederick Douglass

Discussion: African-American Agency in the Coming of the Civil War

  • Vincent Harding, There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981), 154-218 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Hahn, A Nation Under Our Feet, 1-61 [purchase]
  • Primary Document: Frederick Douglass, "What to the American Slave Is Your Fourth of July?" (1852) [on WWW]

Thurs., Oct. 6

UnionDissolved Broadside
Secession of South Carolina

Discussion: The Secession Crisis
Civil War and Emancipation  
Mon., Oct. 10

Prospectuses due by 9 pm (post on Blackboard)

 

Tues., Oct. 11

Discussion: Research Prospectuses

Thur., Oct. 13

Battle of Gettysburg
The Dead at Gettysburg

Discussion: Why Men Fought

  • Gerald F. Linderman, Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War (New York: Free Press, 1987), 1-16, 113-133, 156-168, 180-215, 240-265 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over, 3-51, 81-111, 181-221 [purchase]

 

Tues., Oct. 18

Lincoln
Lincoln as President

Discussion: Abraham Lincoln in His Own Words

  • Lincoln, Great Speeches, 24-32, 35-51, 53-61, 62-75, 87(beginning with 2nd paragraph)-97, 98-100, 103-104, 106-108 [purchase]

 
Thurs., Oct. 20 No class

Sat., Oct. 22

Position papers due by noon

Fall Break

 

Tues., Nov. 1

Contrabands of War
Contrabands

Discussion: Emancipation

 

Thurs., Nov. 3

Presentation: Citing Sources in History Papers (Meet in Mudd 113)

Sun., Nov. 6

Gone With the WindGlory

Civil War Film Festival (King 106, Noon-6 pm)

Tues., Nov. 8

Charleston 1865
Charleston, South Carolina, early 1865

Discussion: The Confederate Social (Dis)order

  • McCurry, Confederate Reckoning, 85-217, 263-361 [purchase]

 
Thurs., Nov. 10, and Fri., Nov. 11 Meetings with professor to discuss research projects
Reconstruction  

Tues., Nov. 15

1866 Election Cartoon
1866 Election Cartoon: Thaddeus Stevens vs. Andrew Johnson

Discussion: Origins of Radical Reconstruction

 
Wed., Nov. 16

Progress reports due on Blackboard by 9 pm

 

Thurs., Nov. 17

Discussion: Progress reports

 

Tues., Nov. 22


Voting under Reconstruction

Discussion: Successes and Failures of Radical Reconstruction

 

Thurs., Nov. 24

No class: Thanksgiving

Tues., Nov 29

Nast Cartoon on end of Rconstruction
Thomas Nast cartoon, 1874

Discussion: The Collapse of Reconstruction

  • Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 180-260 [purchase]
  • Hahn, A Nation under Our Feet, 265-313 [purchase]
  • Primary Document: Rutherford B. Hayes, "Inaugural Address" (1877)

Thurs., Dec. 1

Student Presentations

Tues., Dec. 6 Student Presentations
Thurs., Dec. 8 Student Presentations

Tues., Dec. 13

Gettysburg 50th Anniversary
50th Anniversary of Gettysburg

Discussion: History and Memory of the Civil War Era

  • James M. McPherson, "The Second American Revolution," in McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 3-22 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • David W. Blight, "A Quarrel Forgotten or a Revolution Remembered: Reunion and Race in the Memory of the Civil War, 1875-1913," in Blight, Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), 120-152 [under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
  • Douglas R. Egerton, "Rethinking Atlantic Historiography in a Postcolonial Era: The Civil War in a Global Perspective," Journal of the Civil War Era 1 (March 2011): 79-95 [in Project Muse, accessible from a campus computer, and under "Course Documents" on Blackboard]
Sun., Dec. 18

Final Project (research paper) due by 4 pm
American Flag