Tulloch, The Debate On The American Civil War Era

Abstract

While one may not find much new in the way of interpretation in Hugh Tulloch's collection of historiographical essays, it is nonetheless a useful and valuable work. Many of the interpretive elements of the historiography that he presents have been seen before, but two factors set this work apart. First, Tulloch aspires to create a comprehensive examination of the major interpretations of the era from antebellum America to Reconstruction, and he focuses the discussion on the centrality of what he calls the "attempt to adjust the racial question in America to conform to the principle of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal."