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Youtube Playlist The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850 -1861 Discover how the issue of slavery came to dominate American politics, and how political leaders struggled and failed to resolve the growing crisis in the nation. A House Divided: The Road to Civil War, 1850-1861 is a course that begins by examining how generations of historians have explained the crisis of the Union. After discussing the institution of slavery and its central role in the southern and national economies, it turns to an account of the political and social history of the 1850s. It traces how the issue of the expansion of slavery came to dominate national politics, and how political leaders struggled, unsuccessfully, to resolve the growing crisis. We will examine the impact of key events such as Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and end with the dissolution of the Union in the winter of 1860-61. This course is part of the series, The Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. The series will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor o

And the issue, to put it in a nutshell, is this: Knowing all this stuff is worthless, if all you've done is learn it. You seem to think that we're teaching you Western Civilization because gee, it's a great civilization. It's not. Like all civilizations, it has it's strengths and it has its flaws. Just because it's part of the dominant culture today doesn't make it good. Maybe the dominant culture today would be much better if certain aspects of Western Civilization were different - or even non-existent. Most of your essays saddened me because they were so full of cheer-leading for the West. Civilizations, Western or Eastern, Northern or Southern, don't need cheerleaders. They need critics.

Animated maps showing the imperial history of the Middle East and the spread of religions. The graphics are beautiful and provide a simple overview of the broad sweep of history. I've found these useful at the start of a unit/semester/term to provide a general introduction. My students think they need a hard rock track in the background as a soundtrack...

Feature Where has democracy dominated as the world's most popular form of government? See 4,000 years of democracy in 90 seconds... > Go to Map History of Religion How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries? Imperial History of the Middle East Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of world events?

A collection of primary texts on Rome.

A large and comprehensive collection of Graeco-Roman primary texts. Excellent for research into Classical civilisations.

Check out our new Explaining History video channel on YouTube, featuring advice, study skills, theory and further exploration of 20th Century themes. Click here for more Welcome to Explaining History:20th Century history ebooks for Kindle and iBooks, Kobo and more From the very origins of the communism, in the radicalised European working class movements of the late 19th Century, a vast an complex ideological movement that would eventually dominate much of humanity a century later emerged.