HIST 2021: The Civil War and Reconstruction

This course is the second of a two-semester sequence on the Civil War era.

This course introduces students to the events and interpretations of the American Civil War and its aftermath, one of the most turbulent periods in U.S. history. We will examine the political, social, ideological, military, economic,  and constitutional issues that emerged during the war; the crucial question of emancipation and conceptions of freedom by both black and white Americans; federal efforts to reintegrate the Confederate states into the Union; and the southern white resistance to those efforts, including the development of postwar racism and the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

The course will allow students to evaluate the multiple influences of the period as well as to form educated historical opinions about the role that cultural and ideological norms played in the conflict and its outcome, and will encourage assessment of the place of the Civil War and Reconstruction in our modern national experience.