Newberry Library presents primary source materials from which students learn about the arguments made for abolition before the Civil War, how the appeals against slavery were framed, and what freedom would mean for the South and the...

Learning module uses primary resources to take a look at the literature published during the Civil War and examines how it helped make sense of the war and the profound changes brought about.

Lesson plans that use primary sources to teach the role of New Jersey in the Civil War. Plans tie literature with history and provide opportunities for many learning styles.

This page from Carol Hurst's Children's Literature offers book reviews and planning help for an upper elementary unit on the Civil War. Includes information on books for teachers, books for students, easy-purchase links, and links to...

This very thorough unit plan focuses on the literature of the Civil War for 4th and 5th graders. It includes both a student and teacher bibliography.

The 17th century was a time of great political and social turmoil in England, marked by civil war and regicide. This article introduces the key events of this period, from the coronation of Charles I to the Glorious Revolution more than...

This site provides good examples of critical book reviews of Civil War literature.

Read about the causes of the Civil War from a southern perspective.

This lesson provides background on Seventeenth Century England including the English Civil War and tensions of the century. It features links to a vocabulary list of terms of the century, "Seventeen Century Tensions," and an assignment...

Online syllabus for a college Pre-Civil War American Literature class with links to information about each class lesson. These lessons contain some good teaching ideas and background information about a number of famous authors, much of...

Reading guide for Irene Hunt's historical fiction, "Across Five Aprils," with a variety of resources, discussion and writing questions, and brainstorming activities. Provides pre-reading material, such as an author biography, novel...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students to read anti-war literature from World War I critics to...

Andrew Marvell was a poet, but he was also a politician and a civil servant at a time of tremendous upheaval. This article investigates how Marvell and his writing negotiated the civil wars, Oliver Cromwell's government, and the...

The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason shaped philosophical, political, and scientific discourse from the late 17th to the early 19th century. This article traces the Enlightenment back to its roots in the aftermath of the Civil War, and...

This passage in the 1901 textbook of William Morey reviews the cultural changes in Rome up to the end of the Roman Republic.

The University of Michigan offers the full text of "War-lyrics and Other Poems," which was written by a Union sailor and dedicated to former commander, Vice-Admiral David G. Farragut. Users are able to read the text in its entirety, or...

The Electronic Text Center of the University of Virginia presents links to the online text for Walt Whitman's prose writing, "Memorandum During the War" in which Whitman records his thoughts and experiences visiting the wounded in the...

This is the text and audio of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an anti-slavery novel published in 1852, that was said to "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War." It was the best-selling novel of the 19th...

This site, which is provided for by the Library of Congress, gives information on Whitman's notebooks kept during the Civil War. Image of Whitman available from this site.

This annotated online edition of William Steinway's diary is an excellent artifact from the Civil War! You can read the diary, view the actual hand-written pages, search for keywords, learn about the Steinway Family, and view images of...

This site features the author Joseph A. Altsheler including the full text of 17 novels focusing on the Civil War.

The Civil Wars and the Restoration of the monarchy, the Enlightenment or 'Age of Reason', and British colonialism: investigate the political and religious contexts of Restoration and 18th-century literature.

This is an online photocopy of the original text of the children's book The Little Soldier's A.B.C. by McLoughlin Bros. (c1894), a children's alphabet book, illustrated with military scenes from the American Civil War and soldiers.

Harvey Hogue's adventures as a Union soldier in a Confederate prison camp, and his escape from the notorious Andersonville make interesting reading. Not exactly a primary source document, but stories from an actual participant in the...