HIST 119: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877

Lecture 27 - Legacies of the Civil War

Professor Blight finishes his lecture series with a discussion of the legacies of the Civil War. Since the nineteenth century, Blight suggests, there have been three pred

Lecture 26 - Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory

Having dealt with the role of violence and the Supreme Court in bringing about the end of Reconstruction in his last lecture, Professor Blight now turns to the role of na

Lecture 25 - The "End" of Reconstruction: Disputed Election of 1876, and the "Compromise of 1877"

This lecture focuses on the role of white southern terrorist violence in brining about the end of Reconstruction. Professor Blight begins with an account the Colfax Massa

Lecture 24 - Retreat from Reconstruction: The Grant Era and Paths to "Southern Redemption"

This lecture opens with a discussion of the myriad moments at which historians have declared an "end" to Reconstruction, before shifting to the myth and reality of "Carpe

Lecture 23 - Black Reconstruction in the South: The Freedpeople and the Economics of Land and Labor

Professor Blight begins this lecture in Washington, where the passage of the first Reconstruction Act by Congressional Republicans radically altered the direction of Reco

Lecture 22 - Constitutional Crisis and Impeachment of a President

Professor Blight continues his discussion of the political history of Reconstruction. The central figure in the early phase of Reconstruction was President Andrew Johnson

Lecture 21 - Andrew Johnson and the Radicals: A Contest over the Meaning of Reconstruction

In this lecture, Professor Blight begins his engagement with Reconstruction. Reconstruction, Blight suggests, might best be understood as an extended referendum on the me

Lecture 20 - Wartime Reconstruction: Imagining the Aftermath and a Second American Republic

This lecture begins with a central, if often overlooked, turning point in the Civil War--the re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Although the concerted efforts of nor

Lecture 19 - To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings

Professor Blight uses Herman Melville's poem "On the Slain Collegians" to introduce the horrifying slaughter of 1864. The architect of the strategy that would eventually

Lecture 18 - "War So Terrible": Why the Union Won and the Confederacy Lost at Home and Abroad

This lecture probes the reasons for confederate defeat and union victory. Professor Blight begins with an elucidation of the loss-of-will thesis, which suggests that it w

Lecture 17 - Homefronts and Battlefronts: "Hard War" and the Social Impact of the Civil War

Professor Blight begins his lecture with a description of the sea change in Civil War scholarship heralded by the Social History revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Along

Lecture 16 - Days of Jubilee: The Meanings of Emancipation and Total War

This lecture focuses on the process of emancipation after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation, Professor Blight suggests, ha

Lecture 15 - Lincoln, Leadership, and Race: Emancipation as Policy

Professor Blight follows Robert E. Lee's army north into Maryland during the summer of 1862, an invasion that culminated in the Battle of Antietam, fought in September of

Lecture 14 - Never Call Retreat: Military and Political Turning Points in 1863

Professor Blight lectures on the military history of the early part of the war. Beginning with events in the West, Blight describes the Union victories at Fort Donelson a

Lecture 13 - Terrible Swift Sword: The Period of Confederate Ascendency, 1861-1862

Professor Blight discusses the expectations, advantages, and disadvantages with which North and South entered the Civil War. Both sides, he argues, expected and desired a

Lecture 12 - "And the War Came," 1861: The Sumter Crisis, Comparative Strategies

After finishing with his survey of the manner in which historians have explained the coming of the Civil War, Professor Blight focuses on Fort Sumter. After months of pol

Lecture 11 - Slavery and State Rights, Economies and Ways of Life: What Caused the Civil War?

Professor Blight begins this lecture with an attempt to answer the question "why did the South secede in 1861?" Blight offers five possible answers to this question: pres

Lecture 10 - The Election of 1860 and the Secession Crisis

This lecture picks off where the previous one left off, with a discussion of the legacies of John Brown. The most important thing about John Brown's raid, Professor Bligh

Lecture 9 - John Brown's Holy War: Terrorist or Heroic Revolutionary?

Professor Blight narrates the momentous events of 1857, 1858, and 1859. The lecture opens with an analysis of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Next, Blight ana

Lecture 8 - Dred Scott, Bleeding Kansas, and the Impending Crisis of the Union, 1855-58

Professor Blight continues his march through the political events of the 1850s. He continues his description of the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, describi