Amazon.com Review
As students many of us were taught that the Civil War was not triggered by or fought over the central issue of slavery. However, David Von Drehle, TIME magazine’s editor-at-large, makes a compelling case that the conflict grew solely out of this issue. Von Drehle’s argument is informed by the speeches, news articles, and rhetoric leading up to the secession of southern states, which later took up arms to protect their right to own humans and to move that system of bondage west. What the North fought for was less clear--abolition on moral grounds (when the North itself was built using slave labor and had only decades before ended the practice?) or to prevent disunion, as any alternative may have proved more disastrous than a civil war. Von Drehle also tackles the question of how varying histories of the war’s cause (state’s rights, Northern imperialism) came to occupy our collective beliefs. Though deeply pragmatic, we’re a nation that takes many actions based on our moral principles, and the clear picture of history presented in this Kindle Single is a reminder of our missteps and values. --Paul Diamond
Product Description
History textbooks say that the Civil War began with the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. What followed is the American epic, written in blue and gray and gore. So how is it that 150 years later, we are still fighting over why the war was fought? Few historical questions stir up as much passionate confusion as that one--even though scholars consider it a settled question. In this ebook, veteran TIME writer, David Von Drehle explores the process of forgetting, denying, and rediscovering the meaning of the Civil War.
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