Hey, guys. I've been wanting to learn more about the Civil War in terms of why it was fought. I've been hearing a lot of people saying it wasn't about slavery at all and that it had to do with tariffs or something. I'm kind of confused about it, but I was hoping someone has a good book recommendation. The only one I'm looking at now is Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, so any links/tips would be great. Even short papers online would help, too.
See Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men by Jeffery Rogers Hummel.
I haven't read it but this looks like it should be informative.
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=71
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=88
http://mises.org/media/1320
Brian, off the top of my head, I can give you two very prominent authors (both of whom you have most likely heard of in the past): Thomas James DiLorenzo and Thomas E. Woods Jr. Both of these men have a great selection of history books and lectures related directly to the Civil War.
Also, be very careful what you say in the university classrooms, last year I brought up how Hitler had directly cited Abraham Lincoln in Mein Kampf
when talking about supressing states rights and the high amount of Southern civilian casulties due to the likes of men such as General Sherman. Needless, to say the Professor didn't hesitate from lashing out and cutting me off the in the middle of my next sentence. However, my second history professor was much more open to freely following discussion on the Civil War, even though he disagreed with me.
You have been forewarned!
Thanks for the recommendations so far, everyone! Thank you also for the Mises meda links. I was trying to look through them before but I didn't know which ones were the best.
It's always best to know all sides of an argument. Here is neo-conservative Dennis Brandt's recent book Shattering the Truth: The Slandering of Abraham Lincoln. It is a direct response to DiLorenzos The Real Lincoln. I loved The Real Lincoln but this book has changed my mind on some things and I'm just half-way through.
http://www.amazon.com/Shattering-Truth-Slandering-Abraham-Lincoln/dp/1439229325/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282779114&sr=8-1
As a general rule if two history books disagree you can safely assume that any politician in question was a scallywag nonetheless. It's just quibble over the particulars.