"at bottom the so-called Civil War "â?? was a social war, ending in the unquestioned establishment of a new power in the [federal] government, making vast changes "â?? in the course of industrial development, and in the constitution inherited from the Fathers." Charles and Mary Beard, The Rise of American Civilization
In his seminal two-volume work, The Rise of American Civilization, Columbia University historian Charles Beard used economic and class analysis to create a powerful conceptualization of the Civil War as the "Second American Revolution." He meant the world revolution literally: Northern capitalists and Western laborers evicted Southern planters from power. Moreover, Republicans used the war to pass legislation that helped convert the nation's agricultural economy into an industrial juggernaut. As a result, the Democratic South was confined to the electoral minority for nearly six decades (1877 - 1932).
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