 
william h.[seward, senator from new york, later to become lincoln's 
secretary of state, warned in 1858 of an "irrepressible conflict" between the 
slave system of the south and the free labor system of the north. 
for many years, the authors of northern textbooks echoed this concept as 
the basic cause of the civil war. 
southern historians, on the other hand, have tended to repeat calhoun's 
contention (see preceding topic) that the southern states were victims of the 
increasing and unwarranted interference by the federal government. 
the united states government, according to this view, reflected the 
sentiments of the more populous north, and was infringing upon the 
constitutionally guaranteed rights of the southern states. 
in the 1920's and 1930"s, a number of respected historians described the 
civil war as an economic struggle between northern businessmen and southern 
planters. 
the conflict was the culmination of political strife between economic 
interests for the control of the national government. 
more recently, a small group of historians have tended to reject the notion 
that there were irreconcilable differences between the north and south. 
these historians blame irresponsible agitators and incompetent politicians 
for whipping up the emotional atmosphere to the point where war could break 
out. 
in large part, they claim, the war was fomented by fanatics who 
exaggerated the issue of slavery. 
these historians refer to themselves as "revisionists," since they have 
been occupied with "revising" the traditional interpretations. 
these revisionist studies provoked a series of attacks during and since 
world war ii. 
rejecting the contention that the civil war was the result of fanaticism, 
these "anti-revisionists" object that the moral issue of slavery has been 
ignored as a factor. 
while the two previous chapters, dealing with growing sectionalism, 
explored contemporary arguments over the developing struggle, this chapter is 
devoted to interepretations by historians who have come to their conclusions 
on the basis of evidence available after the civil war. 
