The fourth episode of American
History Too! delves into the United States’ deadliest conflict to date –
The American Civil War. To help us with
this mammoth task we bring on board University of Edinburgh lecturer, Dr David
Silkenat. David teaches a course here at
Edinburgh on the American Civil War and, among his various publications, he has
published a well-received, award-winning book entitled Moments of Despair:
Suicide, Divorce, and Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina.
David guides us
through how the Civil War legacy’s remains a contentious bone in the American
South. We then turn our attentions North
and discuss the role of Copperheads (opponents of the war) in fomenting
dissension – both rhetorical and violent – against the both the conflict and
Abraham Lincoln. In particular, David –
a native New Yorker – offers us his take on the New York Draft Riots of July
1863 that ended with roughly 120 dead and 2,000 wounded in the nation’s biggest
metropolis.
In addition, we
hear how the Bush Administration used Abraham Lincoln as a justification for
Guantanamo Bay, Mark tells the story of the first African American scientist
who now has a coffee shop named after him in Glasgow, and Malcolm lets us know
from which historical event the San Francisco 49ers took their name. All this and much more this week on American
History Too!
Thanks again for
listening and as always any feedback is always welcome. Find us at @ahtoopodcast, @contestedground
and @markmclay1985
Also, please check
out David’s podcast at @AHuntucked
Cheers,
Mark & Malcolm
Reading List:
-
Jennifer Weber, Copperheads: the rise and fall of Lincoln’s opponents in the North
(New York: Oxford University Press,
2006)
-
Joan E. Cashin (ed), The war was you and me : civilians in the American Civil War (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2002)
-
Kenneth D. Ackerman, Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul
of Modern New York (2005)
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