Many Americans think the American Civil War was solely about slavery, but the cultural, political, and economic dynamics leading to war were multi-faceted.

In this address, Donald Livingston, founder of the Abbeville Institute, argues that the historical record undercuts oversimplified explanations and common mischaracterizations. 

Mr. Livingston also speculates that slavery in the Confederate states likely would have ended even if the South had won the war and become an independent nation.

Donald Livingston is the editor of Rethinking the American Union for the Twenty-First Century (Pelican Publishing Company, 2012). He is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Atlanta's Emory University.

The Abbeville Institute is an organization of scholars that seeks to "preserve and present what is truly valuable in the Southern tradition." 

Mr. Livingston's remarks, condensed for this podcast, were recorded at an Abbeville Institute gathering for graduate students in 2015.

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