Humanities Homework Help

This discussion topic is designed to get students to think not only about the major forces leading to the outbreak of the Civil War, but to attach it to popular memory of the war, including how it is remembered and celebrated to this day. Since the late 19^th century, and through the present day, Americans often celebrate the Civil War as a heroic battle of dedicated and patriotic Americans fighting, on both sides, for righteous and proud causes. The proliferation of monuments celebrating the Confederacy – which began to be built in earnest in the 1920s as a way to intimidate African Americans who had served in World War I, and then again in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement – is just one example of how the “Lost Cause” narrative that was cooked up by former Confederates after the war continues to shape the way Americans remember and talk about the Civil War.

• If you were going to address a group of Americans about the Civil War, what issues, people, events, and/or sources would you highlight to have them understand the true cause and meaning of that war?