This study is the first to critically survey the changing and highly controversial historical literature surrounding
the American Civil War era, from contemporary interpretations up to the present. The racial question was one of
the central causes of the war; there was recognition of the need for America to conform wholly to the Declaration
of Independence that 'all men are created equal'. This moral dimension lies at the heart of the historiographical
debate, and just as one group of historians has attempted to play down the moral significance of slavery and the
war, so another has insisted upon its paramount importance. The book both analyses both historians' attitudes and
assumptions, and suggests that each writer's perspective was partly determined by the dictates of time and place.
The six chapters deal, respectively, with the American historical profession, slavery, abolitionism, the causes
of the civil war, the civil war itself and reconstruction.
Table of Contents
Introduction
2. Chronology
3. Slavery
4. Abolitionism
5. The Causes of the Civil War
6. Why the North Won the Civil War
7. Reconstruction
8. Notes
9. Bibliography
