The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877
The causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, taught by David W. Blight, director of Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. Across 27 lectures recorded in Spring 2008, the course traces antebellum Southern and Northern worldviews, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown's raid, the war itself, and the political fight over Reconstruction through 1877. Readings include Frederick Douglass's Narrative and James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, with several episodes of the PBS documentary The Civil War assigned alongside two 5-6 page papers and a final exam. Lecture video, audio, and searchable transcripts are free on Open Yale Courses. Blight won the Bancroft and Frederick Douglass prizes for his book Race and Reunion, which the final lectures draw on directly.