The Role of the West in the Reunification of the U.S. after the Civil War

The National Humanities Center is sponsoring a live, online professional development seminar for literature and history teachers entitled “The Role of the West in the Reunification of the U.S. after the Civil War” on February 25, 2010. The deadline to register is February 18, 2010. When we teach Reconstruction, we typically focus on the struggle to reunite the North and the South. But what of the West? What role did it play in national reunification? The late nineteenth century was the zenith of westward expansion. Western images dominated American culture. What did the wide open spaces of the West represent to the Americans who were crowding into the cities of the Northeast? What did they represent to the ex-Confederates who resented the imposition of federal power in the South? How did the West shape the nation that emerged from the Civil War? The seminar will be led by Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For more information, please see http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/index.htm.