The Real History of the American Civil War

This course is very basic and is of a high school level and should be advertised as such. The content was mostly correct but there were some errors particularly on the emancipation proclamation, and major battles were totally skipped over. The instructor needed better audio. The subtitling was ATROCIOUS with many errors.

I thought it was too dumbed down I was hoping to learn something new. I thought it would be more advanced than it was,Ther was not enough depth in the lectures.

This was my first udemy course. Since I do have some knowledge about the Civil war i didn't learn much. I did like the way Lincoln's leadership was explained. In conclusion, if you know almost nothing about the Civil War this is a good overview.

Perhaps this was not the best course for me to take as I've learned nothing I didn't already know. I've studied the War of Northern Aggression for 50 years. This course so far seems to be for the newcomer.

It may be fair to say that most Northerners and certainly Southerners except people like Harriet Beecher Stowe couldn't care less about the plight of the negro slaves. The Union saw the South as Rebels who wanted to secede and the Confederacy were fighting for States Rights. Lincoln was basically a decent man who loved Shakespeare, self-education and geometry but he too was flawed. He behaved like a tyrant ignoring habeas corpus. At times, he was not a decisive leader which may have cost the Union many lives; in that he wouldn't fire Generals who were outright incompetent idiots. He was just lucky enough to run into the drunken, slovenly but gifted General U.S. Grant and the complete Hannibal Lector like psychopath , Tecumseh Sherman to turn the tide of the War. He was prone to suicidal depression and he may have even been a homosexual. Earlier in his career,when he debated Senator Douglas, he took 'mercury' tablets which had disastrous side-effects and without warning made him behave like a man possessed and a complete nut-case. I don't know why he threw in the 'Emancipation Proclamation' because in those times a lot of Northern soldiers would have thought,"I don't want to risk my life so that darkies can be free" and a lot of Rebels would have thought that the man had taken complete leave of his senses. Furthermore, Heaven help any former slave who joined the Union army and ended up getting himself captured by the Rebels. The outlook of his future would have been very dim. The aftermath of the Civil War is that it consolidated and centralized power of the Federal government in Washington D.C. and it made President Abraham Lincoln, the first American Caesar. The Civil War for the USA may have been totally unnecessary, if you believe that it was fought to free Negroes from slavery considering that every other civilized country in the world abolished slavery without one drop of blood being shed. Everyone, except the USA and Haiti. Haiti, before it abolished slavery by bloody rebellion, was a civilized French colony with an economic GDP that even surpassed the 13 colonies up north. It has been a basket-case ever since.

I found it a shallow presentation with some "facts" that are just plain wrong. For example, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave. It applied to only those who lived in the states that were in rebellion and not occupied by the Union. Where slaves were in places that the union controlled, like Tennessee, it did not free the slaves. The slaves that were "freed" were in the areas that the union had no control over!

I learned a great deal about a war in history that until now I knew little about and I genuinely appreciated the amount of information and facts given during the lecture. I would suggest reading through the slideshow carefully to check for spelling mistakes as there were one too many. Overall I enjoyed the lecture and feel it was well worth my time to participate.

I've read quite a bit about the US uncivil war, but I learned more stuff, I love history and I still feel that historians are still looking in retrospect esp about the US civil war. It does seem a huge loss of life for something that should of been avoided. Being hyper critical, didn't like the music between vids, seemed like I was listening to a TV shopping channel and also the stats of US civil war that Greg brought out, that it could be around a million with disease, suicides and other illnesses directly what happened to these chaps in the war. I think that happens in all wars, we can only speculate of how many people died in America from the World War 11. For eg my family lost members post war from injuries and sickness during WW1 and WW11. However it's definitely a good course to take.

I like how he explained the basics. I am building my knowledge and my confidence as I proceed in the course......

After finishing this course from Greg Vanderford, I've found I know deep learning concepts more intuitively than others. The course is clear and does not skip on any details. Concrete examples are used so you can get to know how it is applied.

This is one of the great course in Udemy. The way of teaching is so good and comprehensive. Thanks Greg for your best efforts.

So much effective for beginners, I really understood the concept of each lecture and of course it help me. Thanks Sir