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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of History, Classics and Archaeology : History

Undergraduate Course: The American Civil War: History and Memory (HIST10334)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of History, Classics and Archaeology CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits40 ECTS Credits20
SummaryThis course will provide students with a broad understanding of the major issues and events relating to the causes, course, consequences, and commemoration of the American Civil War. In addition to the basic topics of causes, strategies, reasons for victory and defeat, and enduring consequences, themes of the course will include: gender, northern uncertainty about emancipation, nationalism and dissent on both sides, the war's international significance, and the causes and consequences of different groups' commemorations of the war. In addition to mastering the historiography of this era, students will gain experience in the interpretation and contextualization of primary sources. Some sessions will involve comparisons with other countries' experiences of civil war, emancipation, and commemoration, encouraging students to reflect on similarities and difference and to consider the benefits and limitations of comparative history.
Course description Not entered
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Students MUST NOT also be taking The United States, 1846-1877: The Union in Crisis (HIST10037)
Other requirements A pass in 40 credits of third level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Directors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783).
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2014/15, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  15
Course Start Full Year
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 400 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 44, Summative Assessment Hours 4, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 344 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 40 %, Coursework 40 %, Practical Exam 20 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Assessment will be based on two final exams (20% each), one essay per semester (20% each), one 'discussion leader' per semester (7.5% each), and oral participation in seminar discussions (5%).
Marks for the discussion leaders will be based partly on peer assessment. (Students will fill out a brief assessment of each led discussion and the results will be tallied to arrive at a score out of 7.5. The course organiser will use the peer assessment score as a guide, adjusting it up or down if necessary by a maximum of one point.)
Feedback Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)Paper 12:00
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)Paper 22:00
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should have demonstrated in seminar participation and discussions, essays and exams:

- advanced knowledge of the causes, course, consequences, and commemoration of the American Civil War.

- awareness of the major historiographical debates involving the interpretation of the American Civil War and its remembrance.

- the ability to evaluate critically secondary sources and the seminar contributions of their colleagues.

- the ability to analyse in depth a range of primary sources and place them in historical context.

- the ability to use these critical skills to advance clear, well-reasoned and independent arguments in both written and oral forms.
Reading List
Sample reading list for an individual session: Emancipation


Michael J. Bennett, ""Frictions": Shipboard Relations Between White and Contraband Soldiers," Civil War History 47 (2001): 118-145.
Ira Berlin, "Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation and its Meaning," in Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era, eds. David W. Blight and Brooks R. Simpson (1997).
_____, et al., Slaves no More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War (Cambridge, 1992).

_____, et al., Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War (Cambridge, 1998).

Richard Carwardine, Lincoln (Harlow, 2003), chap. 5.

Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber, eds., Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War (New York, 1990), chap. 5.

Dudley Cornish, The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army (New York, 1956)

Barbara Jeanne Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1985).

Eric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction (New York, 2005), chap. 2.

John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation (Garden City, 1963).

George M. Fredrickson, The Inner Civil War: Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union (New York, 1965), chap. 8.

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsAm Civil War
Contacts
Course organiserProf David Silkenat
Tel: (0131 6)50 4614
Email: David.Silkenat@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Marie-Therese Rafferty
Tel: (0131 6)50 3780
Email: M.T.Rafferty@ed.ac.uk
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