Publisher's Synopsis
"Embracing an argument-based model for teaching history, Debating American History encourages students to participate in a contested, evidence-based discourse about the human past. The series rejects the idea of history as an undisputed narrative and instead presents the past as understood through the direct engagement with historical evidence. Each book poses a question that historians debate--How democratic was the U.S. constitution? or Why did civil war erupt in the United States in 1861?--and provides abundant primary sources so that students can make their own efforts at interpreting the evidence. They can then use that analysis to construct answers to the key question that frames the debate and argue in support of their position. Through this process, students develop the dispositions and habits of mind that are central to the discipline of history. The Causes of the Civil War asks the question, "Why did civil war erupt in the Uni
