BA thesis on Civil War

[jacobbs0]

Hello everyone, I have to write a bachelor's thesis devoted to the Civil War and more precisely to its causes.
Can you recommend best articles and books devoted to the causes of secession?
Greetings

 

[Copperhead-mi]

In no particular order of what is best-

William Freehling's 2 volume set The Road to Disunion
Steven A. Channing's Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina
James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom
David M. Potter's The Impending Crisis 1848 - 1861

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Hello everyone,

Hello, welcome to CivilWarTalk.

 

[JOHN42768]

Welcome, enjoy. Browse through some of the posting and search feature. Some interesting and enlightening post

 

[jackt62]

These two books are very readable and well researched:

"Manifest Destiny: America's Westward Expansion and the Road to the Civil War" Steven E. Woodworth
"Ordeal of the Union: A House Divided 1852-1857" Allan Nevins

 

[Jimklag]

In no particular order of what is best-

William Freehling's 2 volume set The Road to Disunion
Steven A. Channing's Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina
James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom
David M. Potter's The Impending Crisis 1848 - 1861

Great choices.

 

[Jimklag]

Hello everyone, I have to write a bachelor's thesis devoted to the Civil War and more precisely to its causes.
Can you recommend best articles and books devoted to the causes of secession?
Greetings

Howdy, @jacobbs0 . Welcome. Come by and see us at the Railroads and Steam Locomotives forum.

 

[jackt62]

Sounds like a lot of fun! I wouldn't have minded having to write a thesis on the CW.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Welcome to CWT. I would also add Oakes "Scorpion's Sting."

 

[Jimklag]

In no particular order of what is best-

William Freehling's 2 volume set The Road to Disunion
Steven A. Channing's Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina
James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom
David M. Potter's The Impending Crisis 1848 - 1861

I might add just one (actually eight) - Allan Nevins' massive Ordeal Of The Union. The first volumes deal with pre-war politics and casus belli.

 

[MaryDee]

I just received Elizabeth Varon's Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859. (I'm opening Christmas presents early because I don't want to take them all on the airplane to California.) She is a noted scholar, and this is a relatively recent book (2008). The roots of the CW go much farther back than 1789, but at least this book, unlike the others, examines what was going on before the Mexican War, by which time intersectional disputes were already fully fledged. Disclaimer--it just arrived yesterday, so I haven't read it yet! It is, however, going with me as vacation reading material.

All the books recommended here will have further references listed in their notes and bibliographies. You might want to check some primary sources, many of which can be found online. For one small example out of many, the Declarations of Causes of the various seceding states are all online.

 

[Bruce Vail]

In no particular order of what is best-

William Freehling's 2 volume set The Road to Disunion
Steven A. Channing's Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina
James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom
David M. Potter's The Impending Crisis 1848 - 1861

Steven A. Channing's Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina

This one is still on my bookshelf after all these years. It was assigned reading in my college history class in the late 1970s.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

My senior thesis was a rather uninspiring paper on the 1850 compromise.

After graduating I realized the paper I should have written: an analysis of anti-Republican newspaper propaganda published in 1860 in the South in one or more major papers such as the Richmond Whig, Charleston Mercury, and/or New Orleans Times-Picayune. I even thought of a catchy title: "The Black Republican Menace."

Feel free to use this idea; I don't anticipate doing so now that I'm graduated and writing primarily about non-CW topics.

 

[johnsneed]

My master's thesis on Baptists and the Civil War is in the general topic thread. It is called "The Effects of the Civil War on Southern Baptist Beliefs." If you don't use the thesis itself, the bibliography may be helpful to you.

John Sneed

 

[Deleted User CS]

Welcome from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

 

[Youngblood]

You have to write a thesis for a BA now? In my day that was fir Masters Degrees!

 

[Patrick H]

Howdy and welcome.

 

[leftyhunter]

Hello everyone, I have to write a bachelor's thesis devoted to the Civil War and more precisely to its causes.
Can you recommend best articles and books devoted to the causes of secession?
Greetings

The Secesssionists wrote quite a bit about why they should suceede . Read the Ordinances of,Secession and the Declerations of the causes of Secession. Also as mentioned various editorials from mskor,Southern and Border State Newspapers. In particular those,that supported the Democratic Party.
Leftyhunter

 

[JPChurch]

You have to write a thesis for a BA now? In my day that was fir Masters Degrees!

We had to write a major paper for our "Senior Seminar in History" (Hist 499) for the BA in History. So, it was considered our senior thesis. Spring of 1979 at George Mason University. Had to be a minimum of 25 pages in length, no more than 30; required lots of primary sources and your own evaluation of the topic at the conclusion. Of course there was no internet back then; I banged mine out on a manual typewriter. Ahhh, the good old days.........

 

[Potomac Pride]

Hello everyone, I have to write a bachelor's thesis devoted to the Civil War and more precisely to its causes.
Can you recommend best articles and books devoted to the causes of secession?
Greetings

If you read some of the posts on this site, you would believe that the war was caused by only one thing but that is really an oversimplification of an historical event.