What Twenty-First-Century Historians Have Said about the Causes of Disunion: A Civil War Sesquicentennial Review of the Recent Literature

Woods, Michael

doi:10.1093/jahist/jas272

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Neo-Confederate beliefs, founded on historical inaccuracies, have taken root in public memories through the concerted efforts of some white southerners since the Civil War (Cox, 1997; Gallagher & Nolan, 2000; Towns, 2012). However, the Lost Cause myth is revoked by Civil War historians (Gallagher & Nolan, 2000; Woods, 2012). Woods (2012) states that scholars have “a near-universal acknowledgement of the centrality of slavery in the coming of the Civil War” (p. 439).…”

Section: Review Of Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the Lost Cause myth is revoked by Civil War historians (Gallagher & Nolan, 2000; Woods, 2012). Woods (2012) states that scholars have “a near-universal acknowledgement of the centrality of slavery in the coming of the Civil War” (p. 439). For example, the articles of secession from Confederate states reveal the central role slavery played in decisions to leave the Union; and Confederate leaders spoke at length about their desires to protect and extend slavery (Loewen & Sebesta, 2011).…”

Section: Review Of Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Hard history in hard contexts: Teaching slavery and its legacy in a Neo-Confederate space

Moffa

2022

The Journal of Social Studies Research

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This study examined the experience of a first-year teacher's encounter with Confederate heritage while teaching about slavery and its legacy in a nearly all-white rural high school in a southern state. Data was collected in four interviews over the course of one academic year and through the participant's journaling of critical incidents in her classroom. Data was analyzed through a series of open and pattern coding. The teacher, identifying as a white suburban-raised Northern, adopted the framework of multiple perspectives to foster students' understandings about the harmfulness of Confederate symbols. Yet, the participant felt disillusioned and, at times, ineffective due to her limited experience in Neo-Confederate spaces, tensions between her white identity and teaching about race, her students' academic disinterest, and a lack of subject-specific mentoring. Findings demonstrate the presence of context-specific impediments, or hard contexts, that make the task of teaching hard history even more difficult in some settings and posit limitations of a multiple perspectives framework on issues of racial justice.

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Section: Review Of Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Review Of Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Hard history in hard contexts: Teaching slavery and its legacy in a Neo-Confederate space

Moffa

2022

The Journal of Social Studies Research

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“…Researchers have devised various means to tap the prospects of major political crises such as violent insurrections, coups d'états, and full-fledged civil wars (Blight, 2022;Doyle, 2010;Johnston & Noakes, 2005;Woods, 2012). Some look to the strategies available to competing sides, while others favor analyses of the number and types of civil strife incidents or the likelihood of each side's success in terms of various political, social, and economic metrics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Another Civil War in America? Comparing the Social Psychology of the United States of the 1850s to Today

Van Wart,

Hall,

Barber

et al. 2024

Administration & Society

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Scholars warn that another American civil war is increasingly plausible, if still unlikely; professional political commentators express greater concerns. This study examines the likelihood of another U.S. civil war by comparing perspectives of the 1850s with those of today by using a negative social capital framework as the analytic lens. The analysis finds striking similarities between the two periods. Yet, civil war is a relatively rare phenomenon in developed countries, and the analysis also points to contemporary mitigating examples. At least for the foreseeable future, more likely are trajectories moving toward other types of social unrest short of civil war: ongoing civil strife, additional insurrections, decades-long intraregional political gridlock causing widespread administrative dysfunction, and even a failure to relinquish power. The negative social psychology has already had an extraordinary impact on public administration and is unlikely to decrease in the near term; it may yet increase exponentially as it did in the 1860s.

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“…Very different, recent interpretations emphasizing deep structural economic issues are Ransom ( 1989 ), Thornton and Ekelund ( 2004 ), Egnal ( 2009 ), and Ashworth ( 2012 ). 2 Three recent historiographies of Civil War causation highlight the limits of structural approaches premised on modernization: Ayers ( 2005 ), Towers ( 2011 ), and Woods ( 2012 ). naturally require looking beyond economics to capture the full range of human experiences and emotions, but re-creating the overlapping and competing political economies of secession, and the various fears and hopes spawned by what the New York Herald referred to as the "Panic of 1860" (November 14, 1860), provides a clearer understanding of the dilemmas facing politicians tasked with balancing interests and emotions, while ensuring the fi nancial solvency of their respective states.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 2 Three recent historiographies of Civil War causation highlight the limits of structural approaches premised on modernization: Ayers (2005), Towers (2011), and Woods (2012). …”

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confidence: 99%

The Political Economies of Secession

Schoen¹

2015

J Hist Econ Thought

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Economic analyses of American Civil War causation typically focus onlongue duréestructural arguments neglecting specific context and contemporary observers’ predictions about disunion’s effects. This article suggests secession heightened concern about government solvency and intensified a conversation about the nature of American inter- and intra-national trade, one hinging on ideas about relative dependence and positioning within the world economy. Deep South secessionists rested their claims on a cotton-centric economic worldview, trusting that their coveted commodity could finance independence and attract foreign partners. Pro-compromise northerners greatly feared that possibility. Less compromising Republican political economists countered that secession would reveal northern economic superiority and the South’s underlying weakness, eventually leading to voluntary reunion. Though competing sides envisioned peaceful pathways towards their ends, the actions of insolvent central governments—who feared that any compromise on contested forts and revenue ports would undermine the confidence of underwriters—militated against these imagined peaceful ends.

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What Twenty-First-Century Historians Have Said about the Causes of Disunion: A Civil War Sesquicentennial Review of the Recent Literature

Cited by 13 publications

References 2 publications

Hard history in hard contexts: Teaching slavery and its legacy in a Neo-Confederate space

Hard history in hard contexts: Teaching slavery and its legacy in a Neo-Confederate space

Another Civil War in America? Comparing the Social Psychology of the United States of the 1850s to Today

The Political Economies of Secession

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