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The American Civil War, 1861-1865
This in-person course will be taught by instructor Maurice Isserman on Thursdays from 3-5pm October 2, 9, 16, 23, and Wed 29th. The American Civil War is the central event in the history of the United States of America, not least because its outcome guaranteed that there would be a United States of America in the 160 years that have followed. More Americans died in the Civil War than in all other wars fought by the nation combined. We will consider the war not just as a series of bloody battles, important as they were, but as a moment of political, social, and cultural transformation. The war led to the end of slavery and the establishment of birth-right citizenship, and remade the relationship between the states and the federal government. The Union was preserved through the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, as well as the inspired leadership of some of the greatest individuals in US history, including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant.
Class sessions will combine short power-point presentations by the instructor with discussion of weekly assigned readings from James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era Maurice Isserman, who has been visiting Wellfleet since 1969, is the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College, where he has taught since 1990, following stints in the history departments of Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and Williams College. He received his BA from Reed College and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. He taught a course on the Second World War for the Wellfleet Open University in 2024. He has published widely in a number of fields, including the history of American radicalism, the history of mountaineering, the history of the 1960s, and the history of the Second World War. His book Fallen Giants: The History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, co-authored with Stewart Weaver, won the Banff Literary Festival prize for best mountaineering history of 2008. He is currently writing a history of world mountaineering, told through ten epic climbs.
Suggested reading is James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KYNVJ6C/?bestFormat=true&k=battle%20cry%20of%20freedom%20james%20mcpherson&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-pd-bk-d_k1_1_15_de&crid=36NLKK39YB0YT&sprefix=James%20McPherson
This in-person course will be taught by instructor Maurice Isserman on Thursdays from 3-5pm October 2, 9, 16, 23, and Wed 29th. The American Civil War is the central event in the history of the United States of America, not least because its outcome guaranteed that there would be a United States of America in the 160 years that have followed. More Americans died in the Civil War than in all other wars fought by the nation combined. We will consider the war not just as a series of bloody battles, important as they were, but as a moment of political, social, and cultural transformation. The war led to the end of slavery and the establishment of birth-right citizenship, and remade the relationship between the states and the federal government. The Union was preserved through the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, as well as the inspired leadership of some of the greatest individuals in US history, including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant.
Class sessions will combine short power-point presentations by the instructor with discussion of weekly assigned readings from James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era Maurice Isserman, who has been visiting Wellfleet since 1969, is the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College, where he has taught since 1990, following stints in the history departments of Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and Williams College. He received his BA from Reed College and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. He taught a course on the Second World War for the Wellfleet Open University in 2024. He has published widely in a number of fields, including the history of American radicalism, the history of mountaineering, the history of the 1960s, and the history of the Second World War. His book Fallen Giants: The History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, co-authored with Stewart Weaver, won the Banff Literary Festival prize for best mountaineering history of 2008. He is currently writing a history of world mountaineering, told through ten epic climbs.