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SECOND-GUESSING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR:
A Reassessment of Revisionism and Repressibility

ABSTRACT

Few would deny that the American Civil War was devastating in human and material terms. But most would justify the cost by alluding to the deliverance of African-Americans from the morally bankrupt institution of slavery. Yet, what if the war itself could be viewed as immoral or irresponsible, even against so pressing an imperative as emancipation? What sort of inquiry could lead to such a conclusion? And, if reasonable, how would this perspective alter the interpretation of America’s past, or perhaps even its present course?

In the 1930s and 1940s many historians began to question the traditional glorification of this conflict, asking whether slavery’s expansion was truly a serious threat in the 1850s, whether related political issues were handled responsibly by contemporary leaders, and indeed whether the South itself could have relied on the institution much longer for its economic and political well-being, either within or without the Union. Led by Charles W. Ramsdell, Avery Craven, and James G. Randall, this “Revisionist” school of Civil War causation brought the concept of “the needless war” considerable respect among scholars for several decades. However, since the late 1950s and early 1960s it has been declining steadily, the result of severe criticism from its rivals.

Inspired by several examples of separatism and national disintegration in today’s world, this particular study reassesses and defends the Revisionist inquiry into political and social processes that throw caution and compromise to the wind in the assumption that no alternative course exists. In the handling of events and issues in the decade prior to Fort Sumter, we might discover valuable lessons for today.

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