New York was the financial, commercial and industrial center of the North. It provided thousands of recruits for the war effort. Yet, the city itself, so long tied to the south by the slave and cotton trades, was ruled by Democrats who wanted nothing to do with emancipation or to be forced to send conscripts to die in the South. It was split along racial, class and confessional lines that would explode in the draft riots of 1863. This class will explore how the city endured its as the prominent American commercial hub, and who came out on top after the war.

This course will discuss the far reaching effects of the American Civil War on the world at large. This includes the position of European powers on the war (why did the British not side with the Confederates?), the global economic effects of the war (where were the new sources of cotton?), and the effect of the war on foreign nationals in the States themselves (were foreigners supposed to be drafted?).