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Suzanna Melendez
11/1/2016
Blog Post #5
In Gregory P. Downs and Kate Masur riveting collection of essays The World the Civil War Made sheds light to the profound changes the Civil War caused in the East and throughout the Southwest. The impressive cast of scholars wrote on a variety of themes which ranged from race, economics, politics, and religion. Even though the aftermath of the Civil War has been largely written about, Downs and Masur have asked questions and incorporated new innovative methodologies. Although their volume highlights how the field has matured, older works such as Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution cannot be overlooked. On the contrary, “… historians of the postwar United States almost inevitably draw from Foner’s scholarship, particularly on his ambitious vision of the transformation of Republican ideology and his wide-ranging insights about African American politics.” (6) Ultimately, the existing interpretations about the Civil War have been expanded past the comfortable boundaries of a North-South conflict.
As scholars, they organized the book in a unique manner. “Rather than presuming that Reconstruction is the best framework for understanding the postwar period-and thus envisioning a Reconstruction of the West or the Plains or the world-in this volume we ask whether thinking across regions might in fact might help us understand not just the regions themselves but the entire nation and its place in nineteenth century history.” (2-3) Therefore, the context of the book was not chronologically frame worked. On the contrary, instead of telling new stories, their goal was to frame new questions and modes of analysis. More recent work such as Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of Economic Development have adopted this similar methodology. On their blog post, 20perez16 said “the book as a whole included discussions on the main U.S. regions as well as the international scene.” Historians have brilliantly reimagined the geographic, cultural, political, and ideological landscapes of a world impacted by slavery, war and racism. In both manuscripts the readers are able to see the United States’ dynamic impact upon the world.
In order to write an in-depth analysis of the long-term implications of the Civil War, Downs and Masur abandon the term “reconstruction.” They did a remarkable job explaining that “reconstruction” historically limits the social, political, and legal change to the postbellum South. On the other hand, social changes impacted women, African Americans and Native Americans. In Laura F. Edwards essay Reconstruction and the History of Governance illustrates how grassroots freedom on a local level impacted and shaped the rights claims and legal protections of African Americans. In addition, it was intriguing to read sbremer’s blog post that highlighted that “the government was still in the transitioning phase, and still learning from its experience of tearing itself asunder.” Furthermore, as Drew Gilpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War the nation was still mourning the deaths of thousands of Americans. In order to rebuild the nation, Faust argued that families had to mourn the deaths of their loved ones. In conclusion, the Civil War not only nearly divided the United States but the aftermath had a nationwide effect.