2011 Pew Poll: 48% Believe "States Rights" is Main Cause of the War

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Concerning the causes of the Civil War, history scholar Elizabeth Varon has noted that:
there's emerged in recent years a strong consensus, which scholars call the fundamentalist school, that slavery was the root fundamental cause of the civil war and that the political antagonisms between the North and South flowed from the fact that the North was a free labor society while the South was a slave labor society which remained committed to slavery and indeed to extending its domain.

Interestingly, that is not what most Americans believe. A 2010 2011 poll from Pew notes the following - see the last question at the bottom:

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Almost a near majority believe that the main cause of the war was "states' rights." Only 38% said it was "only" about slavery.

I find the poll interesting, in that, I've seen people blast "the educational system" as teaching American children that the war was about slavery, or that, differing or contrasting views of war causality are not being taught. But this poll would indicate otherwise.

The full story is here:

Civil War at 150: Still Relevant, Still Divisive

http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/1/

- Alan
 
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