This course explores the causes of the American Civil War, from 1800 to 1861. The primary goal of the course is to understand the ultimate failure of the political system to prevent perhaps the most impactful, transforming event in American history. The themes we will explore may be defined in many ways: national, sectional, racial, constitutional, individual, social, intellectual, or moral. Four broad themes are closely examined: the roots of slavery and the crisis of its spread across the expanding republic, how previous attempts to compromise and pivot failed and finally, how the American political system in the North realigned and why the South found that development unacceptable.
((Christian Andros - Tuesday - In Person: CMU Campus))
