“at bottom the so-called Civil War – was a social war, ending in the unquestioned establishment of a new power in the [federal] government, making vast changes – in the course of industrial development, and in the constitution inherited from the Fathers.” Charles and Mary Beard, The Rise of American Civilization
In his seminal two-volume work, The Rise of American Civilization, Columbia University historian Charles Beard used economic and class analysis to create a powerful conceptualization of the Civil War as the “Second American Revolution.” He meant the world revolution literally: Northern capitalists and Western laborers evicted Southern planters from power. Moreover, Republicans used the war to pass legislation that helped convert the nation’s agricultural economy into an industrial juggernaut. As a result, the Democratic South was confined to the electoral minority for nearly six decades (1877–1932).
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