This week’s blog post requires that you read the following two articles:
- Gary Kornblith, “Rethinking the Coming of the Civil War: A Counterfactual Exercise,” Journal of American History 90, no. 1 (2003), 76-105.
- William G. Thomas III and Edward L. Ayers, The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities”
Notice that for the Thomas and Ayers article, you’ll have to navigate through the site, starting with the “Introduction” and then clicking through the other sections indicated on the left-hand sidebar. The links along the top of the page (“Evidence,” “Historiography,” and “Tools”) give you a wealth of historical documents and data that you may also wish to browse at your leisure. The evidence in these sections is also “linked” in the article text, so that as you are reading the article, you can jump directly to articles, maps, and primary sources cited by the authors. If all of this seems confusing, you can click on the “Tools” link and then click on “Reading Record”–this page will show you which sections of the article you have read, and which ones you still need to read. The most important thing for this assignment is to get through all of the “Analysis” pages, but I think you’ll find many of the “Historiography” and “Evidence” pages interesting and useful, too.
Whig Campaign Badge for Presidential Election of 1844
In class this week, we have been emphasizing sharp contrasts between the North and the South. Many historians–we’ve been calling them “fundamentalists”–point to these sharp contrasts, created largely by the slow disappearance of slavery in the North and its growth and expansion in the South, to explain the coming of the Civil War. Both of the articles linked above take a slightly different position on the coming of the Civil War, however, one which more closely resembles a “neo-revisionist” point of view. (Kornblith calls it a “modern revisionist” point of view.)
For this assignment, select one of the two articles and write a post that (a) summarizes the author’s argument by identifying the main conclusions and the major reasons given in support of them, and (b) explains why you are or are not persuaded by the article’s argument. If you disagree with the author, give specific evidence (from other readings or lectures in class) that you think undermines the author. Even if you agree with the author, you need to explain why alternative points of view–like the “fundamentalist” position–are less persuasive.
Your blog post should be published on your small group blog and is due by 9 a.m. on Thursday, February 3.