Pick Your School of Thought

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Pick Your School….of Thought!

The Civil War – Repressible or Irrespressible?

1. Nationalist School (Rhodes)

▪ Slavery caused the Civil War.

▪ Northern-oriented historians credited the conflict with ending slavery and preserving union

2. Progressive School (Beard)

▪ The war was not fought over slavery per se.

▪ It was a deeply rooted economic struggle between an industrial North and an agricultural South.

3. Post-World War I School (Randall and Craven)

▪ The Civil War was a “repressible conflict” – neither slavery nor economic differences between the North and the South were sufficient causes.

▪ The war was the result of the breakdown of political institutions, the passion of overzealous reformers, and the ineptitude of a blundering generation of political leaders.

4. Post-World War II School (Nevins, Potter, Foner, Genovese)

▪ A neo-nationalist view – irreconcilable differences in morality, politics, culture, social values, and economics eroded the ties between the sections

▪ northern factory system v. southern labor system and the virtue of the “free labor ideology”

5. Ethnocultural School (Holt)

▪ Acknowledges the significance of the collapse of the established two- party system.

▪ Before the 1850s, national parties focused on the tariff, banking, and internal improvements, thereby muting sectional differences over slavery.

▪ Therefore, the traditional party system resulted in consensus between the two parties on almost all national issues other than slavery .

▪ As such, slavery rose to fore and encouraged sectional or regional powers.

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