The Civil War Era was a thirty year period from 1846 to 1876 when the issues of slavery, war and reconstruction dominated American politics and life. This course covers that period in three parts: first, the argument about slavery that paralyzed American politics form 1846 until 1861; second, the Civil War itself and its social effects; third, the decade-long, successful struggle by an organized and violent racist insurgency to regain political control of the South during the period of Reconstruction from 1865 to 1876. It is impossible to understand the contemporary United States or its problems without understanding this crucial period of our national history.