Slavery In James Mcpherson's What They Fought For

James McPherson was born on October 11th 1936, he is an American Civil War historian. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, his most famous book. McPherson was the president of the American Historical Association in 2003, and is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopedia Britannica. In his early career McPherson wanted to leave a legacy as being known for the historian who focusses on more than one point. Through skillful narrative in a broad-ranging oeuvre of essays and books, McPherson has succeeded in telling both stories, combining social, political, and military history to reach a broad scholarly and popular audience, emphasizing all the while that the Civil War constituted a “second American Revolution.” Examining thousands of letters and diaries written by soldiers to gather a better insight and understanding, McPherson argued that deep political and ideological convictions about liberty, slavery, religion, and nation were the fundamental reasons that men on both sides enlisted and fought. McPherson’s views on the Civil War are broad in comparison to many other writers, he believes there are multiple causes to the war but that the underlying cause was slavery and that Southern states used the saying “States’ Rights” to justify their actions of slavery and secession. It became a psychological necessity for the South to deny that the war was about slavery that they were fighting for the preservation, defense and

The Civil war between the north and south was a fight sparked by conflicting ideologies. James McPherson detailed that honor, duty, patriotism and ideology formed the main sustaining motivations for the Civil War, while courage, self-respect and group cohesion kept men going in combat. Along with these McPherson In his book For Cause & Comrades McPherson describes soldiers initial motivations. The differences between the confederate and union soldiers’ motivations were more prominent than they were similar because their underlying goals for the future of America varied when it pertained to human rights.

James M. McPherson sets out to discover what motivated the Confederate and Union soldiers to continue fighting in the Civil War in his book What They Fought For. McPherson analyses nearly a thousand letters, journals, and diary of Union and Confederate soldiers to determine what urged them to fight is this defining American Conflict. McPherson reads and groups together the common thoughts of the everyday soldier, from their letters and journals that none of which had been subjected to any sort of censorship, in that time period. He then generalizes the motivations that they used to fight for their country. Whether it be for slavery or for the Union, the author views both sides of the fighting to analysis their ideological issues, how deep their belief coursed through their veins to continue fighting, and how the soldiers held their convictions close to heart in the time of war.

Most people believe the Civil War was fought only over slavery and for abolition. Because of the speech Abraham Lincoln gave “The emancipation Proclamation,” it looks like the Civil War was a war about the morals of the nation. A war could not be stopped from happening once the Compromise of 1850 happened. The South was frantic to keep slavery going. Their whole economy was bases around the economics of slavery. The North did not realize that there was more than freeing the slaves to do with the war. The economics of the south was free labor caused by slavery. The black slave was a God sent for the Southern states in that it allowed them to make a great profit off their crops. William Freehling said, “Posterity thinks

What they fought for is an analysis of a collection of nearly a thousand personal letters and journals entries written by the soldiers who fought America’s famous Civil War. This book seeks to define the ideology of what the soldiers understood they were fighting for, and their comprehension of the outcome of their service .Although counter arguments agree that most soldiers could not give a solid explanation of why they fought for, nor the real Constitutional issues that were at stake; the thoughts the soldiers recorded show that they fought for more than just masculine identity; they highly valued being at home safe with their loved ones, at any cost. This book gives an inside perception of the Civil War, and a

This book was a good analysis of Civil War soldiers' diaries, and letters to their loved ones. Which explains what they were going through in their lives and what they fought for and risked their lives for in this conflict. In the book the author James M. McPherson uses information from l00's of diaries and letters from the soldiers to learn why they fought in this war. The Union soldiers fought to preserve the Nation that was created in 1776, to save it from destruction. The Confederate soldiers fought for their independence, liberty, self government, and for revenge.

The American Civil War was a military conflict between the United States of America (the Union), and 11 secessionist Southern states, organized as the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). It was the culmination of four decades of intense sectional conflict and it reflected deep-seated economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. Many books have been written on this “first modern war” describing how over 620,000 men were killed. Jeff Shaara goes deeper and explores the personal conflicts of four historical figures, two from the South and two from North: General Lee, General Jackson, Colonel Chamberlain, and Hancock.

The Civil War was a very significant time in American history. The Civil War was fought between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. Most people say the Civil War was a war that was fought to end slavery, which it was for most of the population. The Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union. The South wanted slaves to help run there farming plantations. Southern slave owners did not want their way of life threatened or changed, life had been the same for them for generations. Those Americans from the North were considered more progressive and had more influence from other cultures which helped open their eyes to the horrors of slavery. But for many of the men, going to war was a chance to escape boredom and some came because it was the right thing to do (p. 28).

James McPherson the author of What They Fought For 1861-1865, thesis states that the soldiers from both the North and South fought for a large extent for ideology, and not exclusively as brothers in war with other soldiers, for principles of strength or courage, and for the nations of honor and duty. McPherson uses hundreds of letters and diaries from soldiers from both the Union and Confederate troops to show their experience. He tries to focus on a variety of attitudes and motives from the volunteer soldiers. These young men coped with fear, stress, exhaustion, pain, and death everyday while out there fighting. “A final theme that will receive attention is ideology,” (McPherson 1) this is what the soldiers supposed they were fighting for during the Civil War.

The Civil War lasted about four years. In April, from the years 1861-1865. So much blood was shed and a lot of deaths. The North known as the Union and the South known as the Confederate States were at war. People have their views and opinions on the war. Author, Michael Holt has three reasons as to what happened he suggests that 1. The breakdown to the Whig Party; 2. The realignment of voters and thirdly a shift from a nationally balanced party system where both major parties competed on fairly even terms in all parts of the nation to a sectionalized polarized one with Republicans dominant in the North and Democrats in the South (page 208). So, the biggest questions is why? Why were these two sides at war? Was the Civil War over Slavery? Two authors think they have the answers to these questions. In the book, Taking Sides: Clashing Views in U.S History, Charles B. Dew say yes slavery was the cause of the Civil War. He basically

The Civil War was one of the most trying moments in American history. Two opinions trying to outweigh each other caused citizens to choose to be united under two different flags instead of one. Both sides, the Union and the Confederacy, have their own interpretation of how the war happened. For example, a citizen (although their identity is unknown) noted that “The civil war was a whole new type of warfare. Unfortunately, the only way one could learn how to fight in this new type of war was to actually fight in this new type of war.”

The Civil War was a time in history where heroic and patriotic events were displayed from both the Confederate armies as well as the Union armies , based upon their disagreements. The men who fought in this war fought for a very special reason. To protect their country

The Civil War was a dark but necessary war in the history of the United States. It took awhile for things to calm down after the war but when it did the U.S. was very close north and south were with each other. The most common saying about the war now is brother against brother and thousands of people died. The South was worried about losing their possessions and freedoms so they resisted change. Northern ideas stated that everybody deserved to be free every man, woman, and child did not deserve to be shackled and worked to death.

     The Civil War was a four year armed conflict between northern and southern sections of the United States. The Civil War cost more American lives than any other war in history. There were bout 3 million people who fought in the beginning of the Civil War and about 600,000 people’s lives were lost at the end of the war. What began for many as a romantic adventure soon became a heartbreaking bitter struggle between the two parts of a divided country. This, however, was more than the industrial North fighting against the agricultural South. There were divided families with brother fighting brother. Some Northerners joined the Southern ranks and some Southerners were in the Union

The outburst of the Civil War forever changed the future of the American nation. At first, it began as a fight to protect the Union, not as a struggle to free the slaves. Many citizens from the North and South felt that the conflict would ultimately decide both issues. Slavery was one of the primary issues which physically divided the northern U.S. from the Southern U.S. during the Civil War. Even after the Reconstruction Era it continue to divide the two. The Southern resistance to ending slavery was the main reason as to why the South believed in rejecting outsider ideals and it helped establish the Southern Code of Honor that emphasizes aggression and violence.