Read Causes of the Civil War- A Balanced Answer (http://members.tripod.com/adm/popunder/tripod_popunder.html?member_name=greatamericanhistory&path=gr02013.htm&client_ip=64.12.96.38&ts=1021952074&ad_type=POPUP&category=people&search_string=causes+of+the+civil+war&id=2039cad6ab1d9ff853dedaf7385841dc).

1		Does this author think the war was fundamentally about slavery? Does he or she think it was an “irrepressible conflict”?

Read through the party platforms from 1856 and 1860 and the state Declaration of Causes of Secession. (http://members.tripod.com/adm/popunder/tripod_popunder.html?member_name=greatamericanhistory&path=gr02013.htm&client_ip=64.12.96.38&ts=1021952074&ad_type=POPUP&category=people&search_string=causes+of+the+civil+war&id=2039cad6ab1d9ff853dedaf7385841dc)

2		What reasons do these documents give for the impending war?

Go to the site Causes of the Civil War (from the Southern View) (http://www.civilwarhome.com/confederatecauses.htm).

3		Read the first two documents- “Causes of the Civil War” and “Origins of the War.” Do these authors’ reasons for the war concur with those in the Declaration of Causes of Secession? How do these views coincide with the explanations given in Where Historians Disagree? What do you think of this site’s claim that “you are taught the Union side in every classroom, in every school, in every city, in every county, in every state of this great nation of ours”?
4		Why would it matter if almost 150 years after the war there is still a Northern and Southern explanation for the causes of the Civil War? Why should we still care about this debate?

Other sites with primary and secondary documents regarding the Civil War and its causes include:

5		Causes of the Civil War http://hometown.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html this site contains an extensive collection of primary documents dealing with the secession crisis. Civil War Documents (http://americanhistory.about.com/cs/civilwardocument/)- this site contains some of the most important primary documents of the Civil War, including the Gettysburg Address and the Confederate Constitution. Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865 (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html)