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[Pamplemousse]

I'm an American and know very little about it. I assume anyone interested in history knows about it, and those who aren't don't.

 

[The Albatross]

As an American, it matters less to me that Europeans know about the American civil war than, for instance, Americans know about the French revolution.

 

[SkyOdin]

Not much, I think they just mention it once or twice here in Chile. I mean, the USA may be important but the Civil War is just that: a civil war, something internal.

Most information we got is from the TV. I've always found weird how much you seem to bring it up, even reenacting battles... I mean, its a civil war, shouldn't it be a moment of shame for the nation? at least here that's how we treat our own civil war.

The US Civil War is legitimately a big deal in US history. It is the culmination of issues that started with the founding of the nation, and the results of the Civil War have shaped American politics since. You can't really understand large chunks of US history and politics without understanding the causes of the war and the effects of the subsequent Reformation. The US Civil War also had far more American casualties than any other conflict the US has participated in. We simply don't have the luxury of ignoring it, much as Europe can't ignore World War 1. The Civil War resulted in entire cities being leveled and such, so many of the re-enactments involve people keeping significant parts of their local history remembered.

 

[Matsukaze]

I always got the impression that it was all really cleaned up and kind of propaganda-ified in US schools?

Many, if not most, US history textbooks for elementary and high school students are most definitely sanitized and designed to persuade people to embrace the idea of US exceptionalism. The extent to which students learn about the dark side of US history runs the gamut, but is fairly often confined to a minimum discussion of crucial issues like genocide and racism. Teachers often must compensate for a lack of attention/detail in the textbook when it comes to such materials.

EDIT:

I don't know what school you attended but in Florida we never got any sanitized history. I'm pretty sure it all depends on where you go to school, what teacher you have, and what level of class you are taking. I took AP classes and had amazing history teachers who went through ever aspect of American and European history, the good and the bad.

Hence why I said it runs the gamut

 

[foxtrot3d]

As an American, it matters less to me that Europeans know about the American civil war than, for instance, Americans know about the French revolution.

Not that I'm attacking you but why? I put both conflicts at around equal weight.

Many, if not most, US history textbooks for elementary and high school students are most definitely sanitized and designed to persuade people to embrace the idea of US exceptionalism. The extent to which students learn about the dark side of US history runs the gamut, but is fairly often confined to a minimum discussion of crucial issues like genocide and racism. Teachers often must compensate for a lack of attention/detail in the textbook when it comes to such materials.

I don't know what school you attended but in Florida we never got any sanitized history. I'm pretty sure it all depends on where you go to school, what teacher you have, and what level of class you are taking. I took AP classes and had amazing history teachers who went through ever aspect of American and European history, the good and the bad.

 

[The Technomancer]

Yes, its facing Cuautemoc, an Aztec Hero. The Avenue both statues are in its called "Paseo de los Heroes" because of them, and its one of the main streets in Tijuana.

That is a coooool statue

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

I can't remember being taught anything about American history in school.

I got the gist of it, though.

 

[Maintenance]

Is that the one with Mel Gibson?

Or you're talking about that Civilization scenario? I got the ironclads and stormed the south.

Spoiler

Just the basics, not much. Had to look online for battles other than Gettysburg, etc

 

[Madness]

I've always been curious about how/if this is taught in other countries.

Barely learned about it in Canada, beyond the fact it was a war over slavery, state rights, North vs. South. Though increasingly as Canada has become an American satellite state and our popular culture and media is dominated by the US, we'll start to see more American history start to be taught.

 

[Mimosa97]

Not that I'm attacking you but why? I put both conflicts at around equal weight.

The french elightenment and subsequent revolution had a way bigger impact on the rest of the World than the American civil war.

 

[Box of Kittens]

Many, if not most, US history textbooks for elementary and high school students are most definitely sanitized and designed to persuade people to embrace the idea of US exceptionalism. The extent to which students learn about the dark side of US history runs the gamut, but is fairly often confined to a minimum discussion of crucial issues like genocide and racism. Teachers often must compensate for a lack of attention/detail in the textbook when it comes to such materials.

I loved my high school US History class in large part because we didn't use the textbook at all, instead doing readings from a variety of sources that encouraged us to think critically.

 

[Apathy]

I watched all of ken burns civil war documentary, so quite a bit

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Spider Man is going to be on it.

It's sad how many times I had to read this to get the joke..

 

[The Albatross]

Not that I'm attacking you but why? I put both conflicts at around equal weight.

Sorry I'm on my phone and quite drunk so I can't answer this with the gravity it deserves. But...

The American civil war is an event isolated to American history... There aren't many existential political or social movements that were berthed from the civil war. From an American perspective, its immensely important... The most important internal event in our nation's history, but from a social, economic, and political point of view, the french revolution stands as the turning point between the the classical and contemporary history.

I love the American civil war, as lincoln is the greatest president in American history, but there are more lasting truths about humanity to be gleened from the french revolution than the American civil war.

But again I'm drunk on beers and can't explain anything

 

[Goro Majima]

Probably as much as we learned about the English Civil War which probably had as many (probably had more in reality) far reaching results long term for Western Civilization. Obviously wasn't as recent though.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Teddy gives him a run for his money.

Oh Teddy was hardcore. But the Roosevelts are just naturally high on the power level. FDR was president 3 times, ya know!

 

[foxtrot3d]

Sorry I'm on my phone and quite drunk so I can't answer this with the gravity it deserves. But...

The American civil war is an event isolated to American history... There aren't many existential political or social movements that were berthed from the civil war. From an American perspective, its immensely important... The most important internal event in our nation's history, but from a social, economic, and political point of view, the french revolution stands as the turning point between the the classical and contemporary history.

I love the American civil war, as lincoln is the greatest president in American history, but there are more lasting truths about humanity to be gleened from the french revolution than the American civil war.

But again I'm drunk on beers and can't explain anything

I get that but when I really thought about it the French Revolution and the corresponding Napoleonic Wars really only affected Europe, which would be on par to the U.S. in terms of size. Thus, objectively it had about equal impact as the Civil War had on the entire U.S., shaping decades upon decades of politics of a certain part of a continent.

 

[Dicktatorship]

I read Gone with the wind. I realized I didn't know much about the civil war except for Lincoln, North vs South and slavery. Then I watched Ken Burns : The Civil War on Netflix.

I just wish there were more movies/tv shows about the civil war. The last one I watched is Glory and even though I love me some Denzel I found the movie pretty meh ... The Lincoln biopic by Spielberg was also pretty good but I felt like it idealized Lincoln waaaaay too much.

Lincoln was a great leader but he wasn't perfect. Any leader who authorizes the use of total warfare on his people can't be as much of a saint as he's depicted as. Though, credit where credit is due he did at least plan on rebuilding it. It's a damn shame he didn't live to see the Reconstruction through.

EDIT: For the uninitiated The Civil War is probably one of the best examples of why unreconciled partisanship can destroy a nation. Even Thomas Jefferson, near death saw this coming decades in advance but most of the leaders that followed the Founding Fathers were more interested in drawing lines in the sand rather than working with their countrymen on how to solve the issue. Years and years of tension lead to it, and with the partisanship of today reaching such an absurd level I fear what will happen in the future if we can't at least tone it down.

 

[The Albatross]

Many, if not most, US history textbooks for elementary and high school students are most definitely sanitized and designed to persuade people to embrace the idea of US exceptionalism. The extent to which students learn about the dark side of US history runs the gamut, but is fairly often confined to a minimum discussion of crucial issues like genocide and racism. Teachers often must compensate for a lack of attention/detail in the textbook when it comes to such materials.

EDIT: Hence why I said it runs the gamut

I disagree with the first part. For me, a key aspect of curriculum was American tragedy with the native Americans and other shameful points in American history.

 

[Megadragon15]

Oh Teddy was hardcore. But the Roosevelts are just naturally high on the power level. FDR was president 3 times, ya know!

He was President for 4 times, but died early in his fourth term.

 

[CrazyDude]

Sorry I'm on my phone and quite drunk so I can't answer this with the gravity it deserves. But...

The American civil war is an event isolated to American history... There aren't many existential political or social movements that were berthed from the civil war. From an American perspective, its immensely important... The most important internal event in our nation's history, but from a social, economic, and political point of view, the french revolution stands as the turning point between the the classical and contemporary history.

I love the American civil war, as lincoln is the greatest president in American history, but there are more lasting truths about humanity to be gleened from the french revolution than the American civil war.

But again I'm drunk on beers and can't explain anything

Would we include the Napoleonic Wars as part of the French Revolution, because I would say that is what really effected and changed the rest of Europe?

 

[The Albatross]

I get that but when I really thought about it the French Revolution and the corresponding Napoleonic Wars really only affected Europe, which would be on par to the U.S. in terms of size. Thus, objectively it had about equal impact as the Civil War had on the entire U.S., shaping decades upon decades of politics of a certain part of a continent.

I disagree about that only because the french revolution represented the second major democratic movement in modern world history, and the first for europe. Almost every people's movement after 1812 was based on the blueprint of the french revolution, And the 19th and 20th centuries were defined by people's movements

 

[Phu]

I don't know what school you attended but in Florida we never got any sanitized history. I'm pretty sure it all depends on where you go to school, what teacher you have, and what level of class you are taking. I took AP classes and had amazing history teachers who went through ever aspect of American and European history, the good and the bad.

You gotta take those APUSH classes. I still have some of my books from high school and they're actually pretty good.

 

[Shadybiz]

I watched all of ken burns civil war documentary, so quite a bit

Then you know more about it than probably the majority of Americans.

Spoiler

I'm American.

 

[The Albatross]

Would we include the Napoleonic Wars as part of the French Revolution, because I would say that is what really effected and changed the rest of Europe?

Historically, yes, its a valuable lesson that a democratic people's movement in France was followed by a destructive despotism. But, historically, no, the french revolution should be wrapped up by the 1790s.

 

[Poltergust]

I'm an American and know very little about it. I assume anyone interested in history knows about it, and those who aren't don't.

Where did you go to school? The Civil War and the following Reconstruction era was a major part of my history curriculum growing up.

 

[PeskyToaster]

The American Civil War is a huge part of the American general education curriculum but I would imagine it occupies the same amount of coverage as any other foreign nation's internal struggles do in other countries. Probably a section in the text book as part of a chapter but not like whole units on it.

The Civil War probably gets more play than WWII in the education system.

Considering many Americans don't even understand the meaning behind a flag, I would say whatever their knowledge baseline is, is more than the average American.

The meaning behind flags is usually just trivia. Can you even claim to be above the groveling dredges of society if you can't describe the meaning of every symbol on every flag? Why IS there a British Flag in the Hawaiian flag?

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Considering many Americans don't even understand the meaning behind a flag, I would say whatever their knowledge baseline is, is more than the average American.

Or that the flag is an army battle flag and not an actual flag that represented the CSA. History of the CSA's flags is pretty much nonexistent in school.

 

[Mimosa97]

Would we include the Napoleonic Wars as part of the French Revolution, because I would say that is what really effected and changed the rest of Europe?

Nop. The Revolution was over once Napoleon ceased power in 1799 and consolidated (yes consolidated) the achievements of the French Revolution. But this is a very complex subject.

Sadly most people outside of France only know the conqueror side of Napoleon and not the great things he achieved on a social/political standpoint.

 

[PeskyToaster]

Napoleon's is a complicated legacy. He was progressive in some ways but also regressed some of the advances of the Revolution. It was probably necessary though, too much change at such a rapid pace is unsustainable.

The whole saga of the French Revolution and Napoleon is fascinating history.

 

[Dishwalla]

Sadly most people outside of France only know the conqueror side of Napoleon and not the great things he achieved on a social/political standpoint.

I mean this aspect of him was touched on a bit in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure...

 

[Mumei]

The US Civil War is legitimately a big deal in US history. It is the culmination of issues that started with the founding of the nation, and the results of the Civil War have shaped American politics since. You can't really understand large chunks of US history and politics without understanding the causes of the war and the effects of the subsequent Reformation. The US Civil War also had far more American casualties than any other conflict the US has participated in. We simply don't have the luxury of ignoring it, much as Europe can't ignore World War 1. The Civil War resulted in entire cities being leveled and such, so many of the re-enactments involve people keeping significant parts of their local history remembered.

This is a rather convenient coincidence, but I was just rereading a couple articles that David W. Blight, a professor of American History at Yale University, wrote for The Atlantic about the Civil War yesterday.

And you're right about its importance, though I think you actually understate the case:

Americans often begin conversations about equality with Thomas Jefferson’s invocation of it as one of the four first principles in the Declaration of Independence. Americans like being “first” with ideas. But as Abraham Lincoln reminded us, more than four-score years later, the nation founded in a revolution against monarchy had to fight a second revolution against itself in order to determine whether the “proposition” of “equality” had a future in any republic. And that second revolution—the Civil War—was so bloody, so devastating, a “result so fundamental and astounding,” as Lincoln put it, that ever since, Americans of all backgrounds have yearned to declare, or at least feel, its deepest issues over and resolved. Americans may love the epic story of their Civil War, but would, by and large, prefer its nightmarish causes and consequences to fall quiet, to rest in peace.

Much of America’s devastating failures with race relations and the origins of the Jim Crow segregation that took firm hold across the South by 1900 can be traced to the nation’s failure to face the unending legacies of emancipation. The bitterly contested Reconstruction policies of the federal government of the late 1860s, at the heart of which stood the unprecedented participation by blacks in southern political life, and the violent counter-revolution by the former Confederate states in the 1870s, laid the groundwork for such a debacle. In his modern synthesis of the period, Eric Foner called this revolution, and the counter-revolution it provoked, “a massive experiment in interracial democracy without precedent in the history of this or any other country that abolished slavery in the nineteenth century.” Since so much of Reconstruction, in political terms and in labor relations, remained essentially the unfinished Civil War, firm “endings” for the meaning and consequences of this event have remained elusive.

The “Union,” and all that it meant to northerners as a kind of shield for liberal democracy against oligarchy and aristocracy, survived. It was transformed through blood and reimagined for later generations. The first American republic, created out of revolution in the late 18th century, was in effect destroyed. A new, second republic took its place, given a violent birth in the emancipation of four million slaves and the re-crafting of the U. S. Constitution in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Those Amendments—ending legal slavery forever, sanctifying birthright citizenship and establishing “equal protection of the law,” and creating black male suffrage—in effect re-made the United States Constitution. This comprised a second American revolution.

But as the occupation gave way to a political process of reunion, especially around elections in the South, widespread vigilante and organized violence broke out all over the region. Indeed, violence left Reconstruction’s most vexing, twisted legacy. In 1866, bloody massacres of blacks and the destruction of freedmen’s communities wracked the cities of Memphis and New Orleans. In the political violence of Reconstruction, especially in the periods 1868-71 and again in 1875-77, a counter-revolution unfolded. Terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and its many imitators served as paramilitary arms of the reviving southern Democratic Party. Their violence reveals the implications of an unending struggle over race, power, land, and hugely different visions of the ideas of liberty and federalism.

And as Woodward says, one can consider the American Civil Rights Movement a Second Reconstruction; as an attempt to fulfill the promises made during the first Reconstruction before it was subsumed by the counter-revolution of terrorism, political murder, and re-enslavement.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested, Blight's Yale lecture series on the Civil War and Reconstruction is available on Youtube (and iTunes, if you want to look it up there), and is really, really great.

 

[whitehawk]

As a Canadian, not very much at all. It happened in the early/mid 1800s, slaves were a big issue, the north won.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

As a Canadian, not very much at all.

same

All my knowledge of it comes from movies and even then it's really limited

 

[Abinash117]

The US Civil War is legitimately a big deal in US history. It is the culmination of issues that started with the founding of the nation, and the results of the Civil War have shaped American politics since. You can't really understand large chunks of US history and politics without understanding the causes of the war and the effects of the subsequent Reformation. The US Civil War also had far more American casualties than any other conflict the US has participated in. We simply don't have the luxury of ignoring it, much as Europe can't ignore World War 1. The Civil War resulted in entire cities being leveled and such, so many of the re-enactments involve people keeping significant parts of their local history remembered.

Plus, if the Union didn't win out right the US would have not be as strong as it is today and possibly be something completely different. The civil war is a big deal, but I don't see a reason why other nations would learn about it.

I think a more interesting question would be how do and how much do other countries teach and know about American History. I would think it wouldn't be all that interesting to others probably. I would like to know how do countries like Japan and Germany teach about the American occupation.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

Canada, there was an American history course offered in high school (optional: our mandatory history course focused mainly on Canada, naturally) but I didn't have any interest so I didn't take it. I knew basically nothing about it until last year when the whole confederate flag thing started brewing again.

Finding out about that just boggles my mind about how people can interpret it as being anything other than slavery, but oh well. I don't really care for war/military related stuff in general so I tend to tune it all out and blur it together though.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

(Australia)

I feel like I didn't learn anything but I must have at some stage. I really should go through the curriculum to see if there was anything / jog my memory. But a lot of history I probably was taught has been forgotten or was never remembered in the first place.

 

[Mimosa97]

I mean this aspect of him was touched on a bit in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure...

Never watched it. I only know the Keenu meme.

 

[Mr Nash]

In Canada, it wasn't mentioned at all when I was going to school. Only learned about it through movies.

 

[Mumei]

Oh, and I just remembered a book I have out from the library that might also be of interest to non-Americans:

When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863, he had broader aims than simply rallying a war-weary nation. Lincoln realized that the Civil War had taken on a wider significance—that all of Europe and Latin America was watching to see whether the United States, a beleaguered model of democracy, would indeed “perish from the earth.”

In The Cause of All Nations, distinguished historian Don H. Doyle explains that the Civil War was viewed abroad as part of a much larger struggle for democracy that spanned the Atlantic Ocean, and had begun with the American and French Revolutions. While battles raged at Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, a parallel contest took place abroad, both in the marbled courts of power and in the public square. Foreign observers held widely divergent views on the war—from radicals such as Karl Marx and Giuseppe Garibaldi who called on the North to fight for liberty and equality, to aristocratic monarchists, who hoped that the collapse of the Union would strike a death blow against democratic movements on both sides of the Atlantic. Nowhere were these monarchist dreams more ominous than in Mexico, where Napoleon III sought to implement his Grand Design for a Latin Catholic empire that would thwart the spread of Anglo-Saxon democracy and use the Confederacy as a buffer state.

Hoping to capitalize on public sympathies abroad, both the Union and the Confederacy sent diplomats and special agents overseas: the South to seek recognition and support, and the North to keep European powers from interfering. Confederate agents appealed to those conservative elements who wanted the South to serve as a bulwark against radical egalitarianism. Lincoln and his Union agents overseas learned to appeal to many foreigners by embracing emancipation and casting the Union as the embattled defender of universal republican ideals, the “last best hope of earth.”

A bold account of the international dimensions of America’s defining conflict, The Cause of All Nations frames the Civil War as a pivotal moment in a global struggle that would decide the survival of democracy.

 

[Platy]

The American Civil War is a huge part of the American general education curriculum but I would imagine it occupies the same amount of coverage as any other foreign nation's internal struggles do in other countries. Probably a section in the text book as part of a chapter but not like whole units on it.

The Civil War probably gets more play than WWII in the education system.

Here in brazil very little is said about the USA before they took control of the world (end of WW1/begining of WW2)

Civil war is only mentioned like "So Brazil SUCKED HARD and was the last to made slavery illegal. Pretty much everyone else from the Americas had it and was pressuring Brazil to make it illegal, including Uk and USA"

 

[Dai101]

Oh cool didn't know that! Lincoln is my favorite US president but for other reasons besides slavery. Here in Guadalajara nobody knows about the Civil War, I only know because I studied in the US...

I deeply resent that.

By the way, it was thaught in my times. Not much in deep thought but we certainly knew of it. Along with the revolutionary war and universal history.

 

[Llyranor]

I just wish there were more movies/tv shows about the civil war. The last one I watched is Glory and even though I love me some Denzel I found the movie pretty meh ... The Lincoln biopic by Spielberg was also pretty good but I felt like it idealized Lincoln waaaaay too much.

The film Gettysburg is pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, I do not recommend the prequel Gods & Generals. That one has too much Confederacy propaganda, religious undertones, and slavery handwaving. Gettysburg is still great, though.

 

[The Albatross]

Despite thinking that the french revolution is more important to Americans than the American Civil War is to non Americans...

I do wonder how many Europeans know how guilty your countries, societies, and economies were for American slavery? The social and economic systems of the leading European countries of the 19th and 20th centuries were essentially based on abducting black people and selling them as slaves to the Caribbean and American south

 

[CrazyDude]

Here in brazil very little is said about the USA before they took control of the world (end of WW1/begining of WW2)

Civil war is only mentioned like "So Brazil SUCKED HARD and was the last to made slavery illegal. Pretty much everyone else from the Americas had it and was pressuring Brazil to make it illegal, including Uk and USA"

20000 former confederates migrated to Brazil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

Interesting little tidbit.

 

[Renekton]

Our school textbooks used to have some minor mention about it.

It was wholly replaced by Islam history later.

 

[Opto]

Teddy gives him a run for his money.

Teddy was a bit too war-happy

 

[Box of Kittens]

Finding out about that just boggles my mind about how people can interpret it as being anything other than slavery, but oh well. I don't really care for war/military related stuff in general so I tend to tune it all out and blur it together though.

The prevalence of distorted views of the American Civil War as some sort of noble struggle for states' rights and the preservation of the Southern way of life against an oppressive federal government is really sad.

 

[Platy]

20000 former confederates migrated to Brazil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

Interesting little tidbit.

They had 23 years of more slavery !

...and after slavery ended in brazil, immigrants were used to substitute the slave work. That must be when the "many eventually returned to the United States" happened =P

 

[gamechanger87]

In addition to some general knowledge or some focused articles on history magazines i found that Wikipedia has an excellent series of articles about this event, why and how it begun and about the outcome and what that meant to american history.
I am very interested in history and military history in general so i almost devour anything comes on my way.
If the OP has some suggestions on sites or reads about the issue that would be great.

A good set of books would be Shelby Foote: Civil War A Narrative. He was in the Ken Burns doc.

Some more recent books have surpassed it but IMO it remains the best long form outlining the whole war. Battle Cry of Freedom is an awesome one volume book on it which can help you dive into certain battles at a later date. There are many books in every one.

The American Civil War was at a time in history when weaponry had advanced beyond tactics and thus its battles were slaughters. ADvancing to 100 yards and firing makes sense with a musket not a rifle. First war with telegraphs. Watching the strategy evolve is amazing

Jackson's valley campaign was a master class of mobile warfare.

By the end both sides had settled into siege warfare like WW1.

Any military history buff should really read up on it.