The Civil War

Submit fully-developed responses to the following questions. Your response to questions 1 & 2 should be at least 200 words each. Your response to question 3 should be at least 500 words in length. All responses should be a combination of solid research and personal evaluation of the data. Include references from books listed below in each response.

1. Discuss the role of Abraham Lincoln as a wartime president. Include comments on his evolving stand/actions on slavery. Do you feel he unified the country at this time, or not? Explain your answer.

2. Analyze the attack on Fort Sumter and share how you would have reacted as a Southerner or a Northerner. Then, either summarize the Souths arguments about States rights and The Cause as understood by Southerners, or refute those arguments as a Northerner. Was the Civil War inevitable? Why or why not? Be sure to support your claims with evidence from the texts.

3. Compare the North and the South in 1861 and then in 1865. What demographic, economic, and social advantages (or disadvantages) did each side have during the war? How did either side take advantage of changes in military technology? Why did the North win the conflict?

Mandatory references:

McPherson, J. M. (1996). Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
ISBN-13: 978-0195117967

Snow, D. M., & Drew, D. M. (2009). From Lexington to Baghdad and Beyond: War and Politics in the American Experience (3d ed.). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
ISBN-13: 978-0765624031

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