Last few weeks I’ve been going through a 27-part open course from Yale University
HIST 119 - course page
Lectures are by professor David Blight
(perhaps best know for his books, notably
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American History & Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom)
Both entertaining and informative. Light on the military minutiae but insightful on the meaning of the period. Discovered it because I wanted to become better informed on the postwar period.
That it’s 15 years old does not diminish its value. I actually find it liberating it isn’t seen through the prism of more recent events (rise of Trump, Charlottesville, Confederate monuments, 1619 project / CRT.) It’s an excellent resource free of having to define itself relative to any of those charged events.
Anyway, Blight is a treasure.
Thanks for posting this. I keep meaning to start a course, but there are so many out there that it's kind of overwhelming. I should take this as a nudge to pick one and roll with it.
I keep trying to convince my wife that while 99% of the stuff on YT is complete crap, that still leaves a massive iceberg of incredibly high-quality content out there, and it's all free.
A good ad blocker is a game-changer for this platform.
That's a good point. Not sure if Yale monetized this series but at least part of the reason I started it is I'm on a 30-day free trial of premium rn.
I generally have a solid grasp of American history. However, I have a couple glaring holes: pre-1770 and Reconstruction. With the latter, I think it's because there isn't an arc to the story.
Often we couch our history in narrative form, with a familiar rise-fall-redemption populated by a finite number of heroes and villains. The dozen years after the Civil War are a dirge/requiem. There is a blunt force attempt at goodwill thwarted by tragic savagery. The conclusion being an unsatisfactory compromise to settle a disputed election result (1877.) The three Amendments passed during this time cast a long shadow to this day. It's instructive to study the election of 1868. Very reminiscent - though, IMO more severe back then - of the pervasive nastiness and division the country is currently experiencing.
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Speaking of holes in base knowledge, at some point I should like to read more about the history of the United States and Native Americans. In particular I need a good book rec for the Trail of Tears. I also have not read enough about the postwar Indian Wars. I've read biographies of individual commanders involved at different points - Fremont, Sheridan, Custer - but it's not something I've looked at as closely as the major wars in our history.
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The ACW is almost limitless when it comes to finding a good book. So many different aspects have been covered ad nauseum. Yet it remains a everspring of bubbling knowledge.
Just this week I learned, quite accidentally, that the Confederacy recognized Arizona as a organized incorporated territory. I was aware the
Battle of Glorieta Pass resulted in the loss of the New Mexico territory for the rebels, but I somehow glossed over the official claims made in 1861.
John Brown's story is another example of knowing the thumbnail but not the details; I had forgotten Frederick Douglas met with him before the Harper's Ferry Raid, and fled to England via Canada in the aftermath. It seemed likely he would be scooped up with the other co-conspirators had he not taken flight.
I may revive
@timschochet 's ACW thread to deposit some knowledge. Yesterday was the 160th anniversary of The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, one of the seven failures to capture Vicksburg; tomorrow marks the 1862 sinking of the
USS Monitor in the Atlantic and The Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro, TN.