The Causes of the Civil War

On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman discuss the causes of the American Civil War.In modern America, it seems the Civil War is being relitigated now more than ever, with presidential candidates being asked: "What caused the Civil War?" The answer for many is to simply say "slavery." However, as Maitra and Stepman explain, looking at the war through the lens of slavery versus anti-slavery or racism versus antiracism fails to capture the complex nature of a drawn-out conflict that nearly ended the American republic.Maitra and Stepman talk about the prolonged debates over slavery, the nature of the Constitution, and the attitudes of Americans on the eve of war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

History Reconsidered is a weekly podcast dedicated to taking a deep dive into historical issues and events and relating them to the modern world. It is hosted by Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman.Dr. Sumantra Maitra is a senior editor at The American Conservative, a senior contributor to The Federalist, a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, and an elected, Associate Fellow at the Royal Historical Society, London. His book, “Sources of Russian Aggression” (Lexington-Rowman & Littlefield) is scheduled to be published in 2024.Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal and was a 2018 Lincoln Fellow with the Claremont Institute. He’s spent over a decade in media and wrote “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past,” a book about how a cultural revolution aims at discrediting the foundations of the United States and the West. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.