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)