Financing to Defend is an interactive historical exercise in the financial history and decision making of the Civil War. It exposes the viewer to three different problems of the period and challenges the viewer to make a decision and choose one of several possible outcomes. Many times, these decisions are not easy to arrive at. One given solution to a problem may seem just as viable as another, and neither one may seem attractive. During the early 1860s, reform of the antiquated system of finance occurred only after intense, and sometimes bitter, wrangling over fundamental economic issues such as the value of money, the role of banks, and the regulatory role of the government and the states.
 
This site is designed in a decision tree format. From a central page, the viewer may choose one of three problems in civil war finance to consider. Within each problem, the viewer may, in some cases, choose a link to view a related primary document or an image. For all except the tax question, the overall success of your decision is given in a brief memo from the President.
 
 
This project and web site were designed and created as a final project for History 239, The Era of Civil War and Reconstruction, taught by Professor Pat Rael at Bowdoin College. I would like to thank the Professor for his guidance on this project. The site was created and designed using Netscape software for the Macintosh but is not optimized for any particular browser.
 
All contents, unless otherwise noted or cited, are copyright 1998 Benjamin C. Burke.