Ayer's What Caused The Civil War
The majority of people that grew up in the United States remember being taught about the Civil War in elementary school, and received the abridged version of history from the Civil War period. Many teachers simply state that the Civil War had one cause: slavery, or if the ones being taught live in the south: state’s rights. However, despite what many believe, the Civil War that took place from 1861 to 1865, truly happened in a time span of many more years, and had a multitude of causes.
While most ideas happen incessantly, only a certain few influence people to instigate a war so cataclysmic as the Civil War. Some ideas that might have affected the beginning of the Civil War are stated in Ayer’s What Caused the Civil War?, “The ‘North’ and …show more content…
15), and, “Slavery’s power stretched all the way to the Mason-Dixon Line, into every facet of life,” (pg. 14).
Ayer’s argument about the causes of the Civil War, would fit in the realm of historical consciousness under the category of history as complexity. Although Ayer does not name this individual, he states, “a cultural historian has recently reminded us, causality has come to be understood in terms of ‘increasing specificity, multiplicity, complexity, probability, and uncertainty.’...We should simply refuse to settle for simple explanations for complex problems,” (pg. 17).
Like many who wish to show most sides of a story, Ayer does include a portion of his writing to state what other individuals have said that argues his point. Ayer believes that the Civil War had many causes, but other deem the Civil War’s cause with only a word or a sentence, “Some Americans of course have...short explanations for the Civil War,” and that, “People deliver these explanations with an air of savvy common sense,” (pg.
While most ideas happen incessantly, only a certain few influence people to instigate a war so cataclysmic as the Civil War. Some ideas that might have affected the beginning of the Civil War are stated in Ayer’s What Caused the Civil War?, “The ‘North’ and …show more content…
15), and, “Slavery’s power stretched all the way to the Mason-Dixon Line, into every facet of life,” (pg. 14).
Ayer’s argument about the causes of the Civil War, would fit in the realm of historical consciousness under the category of history as complexity. Although Ayer does not name this individual, he states, “a cultural historian has recently reminded us, causality has come to be understood in terms of ‘increasing specificity, multiplicity, complexity, probability, and uncertainty.’...We should simply refuse to settle for simple explanations for complex problems,” (pg. 17).
Like many who wish to show most sides of a story, Ayer does include a portion of his writing to state what other individuals have said that argues his point. Ayer believes that the Civil War had many causes, but other deem the Civil War’s cause with only a word or a sentence, “Some Americans of course have...short explanations for the Civil War,” and that, “People deliver these explanations with an air of savvy common sense,” (pg.