Division and Reunion The Civil War in America's Story

by Chuck Taft

1. Could the United States have been talked off “the edge of the precipice”?

1.1. Differences between N & S

1.2. Secession arguments

1.3. Why the Civil War? from historians

1.4. The Decade of Decisions

1.4.1. Compromise of 1850

1.4.2. Kansas Nebraska Act

1.4.3. Dred Scott Decision

1.4.4. Lincoln Douglas Debates

1.4.5. John Brown and Harpers Ferry

1.4.6. Election of 1860

2. What is the Civil War story of _________________?

2.1. Soldier life

2.2. Life on the Home Front

2.3. Civil War prisoners

2.4. US Colored Troops

2.5. Women

3. How do we view Abraham Lincoln?

3.1. Lincoln's Life and Legend

3.2. Emancipation Proclamation

3.3. Expanding Presidential Power

3.4. Lincoln's speeches

3.5. Assassination

3.6. Northern vs. Southern viewpoint

4. Did the Union win or did the Confederacy lose the Civil War?

4.1. Major battles and events

4.1.1. Fort Sumter

4.1.2. Bull Run

4.1.3. Shiloh and the West

4.1.4. Antietam

4.1.5. Fredericksburg

4.1.6. Chancellorsville

4.1.7. Gettysburg

4.1.8. Vicksburg

4.1.9. Petersburg

4.1.10. Appomattox

4.2. Resources of each side

4.3. Leadership

4.4. Home front production

4.5. Technology

4.6. Turning Points in the War

5. Was Reconstruction good, bad, or ugly?

5.1. Short term impact of the war

5.2. Reconstruction Plans

5.3. Reconstruction Amendments

5.4. Freedmen and Reconstruction

5.5. Radical Reconstruction

5.6. Growth of KKK and Jim Crow

5.7. End of Reconstruction

6. Is the Civil War valuable to study?

6.1. Impact today

6.2. Remembering the Civil War

6.3. Differing views - N and S

6.4. The Civil War and Wisconsin

6.5. The Confederate Flag controversey

6.6. The Civil War Sesquicentennial

7. What role does slavery play in America's story?

7.1. Origins of slavery in America

7.2. The growth of slavery in America

7.3. Slave life in antebellum America

7.4. Resistance to slavery

7.5. Justifications for slavery

7.6. The Abolition Movement

7.7. The impact of slavery today

8. How do we tell the story of slavery and the Civil War - and what does the story say?

8.1. Slave Narratives

8.2. Docuements

8.3. Poetry

8.4. Stories

8.5. Maps

8.6. Speeches

8.7. Art

8.8. Newspapers and Journals

8.9. Movies

8.10. Books