The text explores how the Civil War changed the meaning of liberty in the United States. With references, explain how the concept of liberty changed in meaning throughout the war.

In Chapter 2 McPherson highlights three different aspects of the Civil War that Abraham Lincoln’s activity helped to make revolutionary. What are these three aspects, and do you agree that Lincoln’s actions helped to define them as revolutionary? Would the results have been the same without his actions? Explain.

Throughout Chapter 3 McPherson highlights several responses that Southern leaders had to Lincoln’s goals for emancipation, viewing it as an act that violated liberties enshrined by the Constitution. Go to Page 46 and read the excerpts of the Constitution there. Do you think any of these arguments against emancipation are legally sound, by the letter of the law? Why or why not? Does this give you a better understanding of the political world Lincoln had to navigate?

How has reading Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution changed your understanding of the history of emancipation in the United States? Explain with references from the text.

Was the American Civil War a total or limited war? Why is this significant? Explain with references from the text.

How did Southerners and Northerners view the concept of liberty differently during the Civil War? Explain with references from the text.

Select one of Lincoln’s metaphors from Chapter 5. What does the metaphor say literally, and what does it say metaphorically? Research the quotation and its context. Do you think this metaphor explains the situation it describes better than more literal speech? Why or why not?

Chapters 2 through 7 each examine a different quality of Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War. Does one stand out to you as most important to Lincoln’s success? Is there a different quality not discussed that you feel is most valuable? Explain with references from the text.

At the end of Chapter 1, and again at the end of Chapter 7, McPherson mentions historical critics of the results of emancipation, theorists who argue that the poverty and racism that Southern blacks faced and continue to face indicates that the government never had any real interest in elevating the nation’s black population to true equality with whites. Do you agree or disagree with such an argument? Why?