HST202 Midterm #2 Essays

HST202 - Midterm #2
Essay Questions

Choose one question form Section A and one from Section B.

Suggestion: Be sure to answer the question and support your position with facts. Write clearly and do not use the first person when you write.

Section A

#1 The conflict that broke out in 1861 has been called the following:

The Civil War
The War Between the States
The War for Southern Independence
The War of Secession
The Second American Revolution
A Civil War Within A Civil War
The Second American War for Independence
The War of Yankee Aggression
The War for the Union
The War for Southern Self-Determination
The War for Freedom
The Brother's War

Which of these terms, in your judgement, is least in accord with the facts and which is most in accord with the facts?

#2 Giving reasons, discuss which item in each of the following pairs did more to win the Civil War for the North:

the McCormick reaper or the skill of the Union generals
the blockade of southern ports or the attitude of foreign powers
the statesmanship of President Lincoln or the superior resources of the North

Section B

#3 Discuss the validity of the assertion that Radical Reconstruction, even more than the Civil War, drastically and permanently altered the nation's political and social structure.

#4 What were the worst blunders of Reconstruction that might have been avoided, and what were the blunders that could not have been avoided? Explain.

#5 Comment on the following statement:
"If the Radical Republicans were friends of the ex-slaves, then they certainly did not need any enemies."