Comparing the War's Effects
The objective's verb is 'compare'
- Compare the relative significance of the effects of the Civil War on American values.
- Relative significance means the answer must rank, not merely list — that is the whole task.
- So choose two or three effects, state a criterion for significance, and apply it.
'Relative significance' means the answer must...
That is the whole task.
Three candidate effects
- Slavery abolished — the 13th Amendment, and the CED says the war settled this issue.
- Secession settled — the question of whether a state may leave was answered by the outcome.
- Citizenship redefined — the 14th and 15th amendments, whose enforcement the CED calls unresolved.
Select both effects the CED counts as settled.
The other two were left unresolved.
A criterion the CED itself supplies
- 5.1 distinguishes what was settled from what was left unresolved, and that is a usable ranking criterion.
- By it, abolition and the secession question rank highest in finality, and citizenship ranks highest in long-term consequence.
- Saying which criterion you are using is what turns a ranking into an argument.
A settled effect, an unresolved effect, or an effect on values?
Sort each effect of the Civil War.
Match each criterion to the effect it ranks highest.
Saying which criterion you use turns a ranking into an argument.
"Relative significance" means the answer must rank, not list. Choose a criterion — the CED's own settled versus left unresolved works — apply it to two or three effects, and then give the strongest objection to your own ranking; that is what separates a comparison from a preference.
Because the objective says 'values', the answer should include...
5.9's Gettysburg framing is an effect on values by definition.
Effects on values, not only on law
- The objective says American values, so the answer is about what the nation claimed to believe, not only what it enacted.
- 5.9's Gettysburg framing — the war as the fulfilment of America's founding democratic ideals — is an effect on values by definition.
- So a values answer includes how the founding documents were re-read, not only how the Constitution was amended.
Handling the strongest ____ to your ranking separates a comparison from a preference.
The CED's own phrase supplies both criterion and objection.
Writing a comparison of significance
- Name two effects, state your criterion, rank them, and give the strongest objection to your ranking.
- Handling the objection is what separates a comparison from a preference.
- The CED's own settled but left unresolved is both the best criterion and the best objection, which makes this subtopic unusually tractable.
Two outcomes of the same war: one closes a question forever, the other opens a question that takes a century to answer. Which matters more depends entirely on whether you are measuring finality or consequence, and saying which you chose is the argument.
Compare the relative significance of the effects of the Civil War on American values — the task is to rank. The CED's own distinction between what was settled (slavery, secession) and what was left unresolved (federal power, citizenship rights) is the readiest criterion; by finality abolition ranks first, by long-term consequence the redefinition of citizenship does. Because the objective says values, include 5.9's re-reading of the founding ideals, not only the amendments.