Courses

No place or period in American history has ignited more passion or brought into being a richer trove of first-rate scholarship than the South during the years before the Civil War.  On the other hand, no place or period in American history has generated more misguided scholarship or more propaganda. In this course, students will sample historical literature and primary sources about the Old South, evaluating the interpretations historians have offered and scrutinizing some of the documents on which historians of the Old South have based their conclusions.