American Civil War Era Help?

[Pretty Flaco]

I've been given a time frame (1820-reconstruction) and I need to be able to supply a specific question and provide an analytical answer to it. An example would be something like,
"How significant was Fidel Castro's role in the Cuban Missle Crisis of 1962?"
or
"To what extent did anti-communist policies of the United States contribute to the rise of the Taliban?"

Can anyone give me any ideas on topics? PS do NOT give me a direct question. I just want ideas. And remember that this has to be very specific and has to be questions open to analysis.

[citizen of industry]

After the assassination of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president and implemented harsher reconstruction policies, so lots of carpetbagging. I've always thought that was interesting

[thesadmafioso]

Well, you could phrase a question based around the nature of the dialectical conflict of the slave based agrarian economy of the south and the industrializing, more capitalist north and its historical role as the completion of the bourgeois American revolution.

From there, you could also phrase a question around the concept of the bourgeoisie quickly turning back the policies of radical reconstruction when they began to take on a political direction which began to unsettle the ruling elites, wherein they rescinded the policies of such to preserve their social order and in turn caused decades of reactionary regression throughout the south.

[Pretty Flaco]

Thanks guys.

Also it should be noted that my topic could have NOTHING to do with politics. It could be a topic on something athletic or sports related for instance (but still would need to be analytical).

[thesadmafioso]

Thanks guys.

Also it should be noted that my topic could have NOTHING to do with politics. It could be a topic on something athletic or sports related for instance (but still would need to be analytical).

Well, where is the fun in that?

Also, Marx and Lincoln were in pretty regular contact during the civil war, so you could probably use that as a jumping point to a more international and revolutionary approach to the assignment while still maintaining some relevance to US history and the period at hand.

[Pretty Flaco]

Someone in my class actually mentioned the marx-lincoln letters.

And yes, it does need to be specifically about the US or the US in relation to other countries.
OR other North/South american countries in relation to the US too, but that's a little harder.

[citizen of industry]

Also interesting is that southern states provided equipment to their own troops. Logical in a society all about state's rights. The result, regiments from some states in rags and no shoes while other states were well clothed and armed. I think N.Carolina is an example of the latter - they would actually hold back supplies to the army, saving them for N.Carolina regiments.

I wonder under any context if it would have been possible for the South to win the war? They were so under-developed compared to the North. Aristocratic generals and poor-white troops with agriculture as the main industry. Compared to the industrialized north with telegraph, more rail and an endless supply of immigrants. They won a lot of battles but it seems rather irrelevant.

McClellan ran against Lincoln in 1864(65?) on a peace platform, right? Maybe he would have tried settling with the south.

[Pretty Flaco]

Also interesting is that southern states provided equipment to their own troops. Logical in a society all about state's rights. The result, regiments from some states in rags and no shoes while other states were well clothed and armed. I think N.Carolina is an example of the latter - they would actually hold back supplies to the army, saving them for N.Carolina regiments.

I wonder under any context if it would have been possible for the South to win the war? They were so under-developed compared to the North. Aristocratic generals and poor-white troops with agriculture as the main industry. Compared to the industrialized north with telegraph, more rail and an endless supply of immigrants. They won a lot of battles but it seems rather irrelevant.

McClellan ran against Lincoln in 1864(65?) on a peace platform, right? Maybe he would have tried settling with the south.

It's worth noting that britain was close to intervening in the war on the side of the confederacy (the emancipation proclamation was the final blow to their legitimacy for that, as slavery had already been outlawed in britain) and that the cotton economy of the south made the cotton plantain owners some of the richest people of their time. The disparity was amazing in the south, but the south's governments had money to spare.

[citizen of industry]

And all that cotton rotting in people's barns because of the blockade.

Wasn't it the threat of strikes in the textile industry that led to Britain not intervening? I know I read something on this from either Marx or Engels. That would be interesting for a paper.

[Olentzero]

Maryland was a slaveholding state and yet remained in the Union. As I understand it, Lincoln had to offer a lot of compromises to get Maryland not to secede - otherwise Washington DC would have been firmly in Confederate territory.