How Americans Have Interpreted the Civil War

Professor Gaines Foster Department of History

Through lectures, readings, movies, and discussion, this course will explore how contrasting and contested memories of the Civil War emerged—among whites in the North, whites in the South, and African Americans. It will then explore manifestations of those memories in various novels and movies as well as in movements and public controversies, such as the recent debate over Confederate monuments. Having explored how Americans’ confusion about the Civil War emerged over the last 175 years, the course will focus on some of the central issues in understanding the meaning of the war.