Thursday, July 1, 2010
BCOF 2
One interesting element of BCOF is that almost 275 pages pass before the Confederacy fires on Fort Sumter and the war officially begins. It is really helpful how those pages are used to carefully establish the political and social context of the time and make an argument as to the central cause of the war. While issues such as states' rights and industrial expansion were discussed, the fundamental, irreconcilable conflict between the North and South was the presence of slavery in the South and its expansion into the territories. By having all of the background that the first several chapters offers helps us to get at least some faint idea as to how men could be so willing to fight and violently die for the cause and the respective governments were ready to allow this.
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I feel the same way. Although I must admit that those first 200 pages were a little painful for me. They were necessary for understanding, but I am grateful that the reading is coming easier now.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways these first pages were tedious because they were so detailed but, even though I thought I taught (and knew) much of this information before, I was amazed at the great detail McPherson provided. I found that even though the main events were familiar, I learned new details that I will be able to use in my classroom--especially my AP classes.
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