It is often assumed that knowing history is "knowing the facts."
But historical understanding is more accurately depicted as a
series of inquiries and hypotheses about the past. Asking
questions and looking for answers are essential components of
the historian's craft. What follows are a number of questions to
help you reflect on the crisis at Fort Sumter. Although the
information in this program never changes, you may find that as
you ask new questions or reconsider old ones, your ideas about
what happened change and broaden. Pursuing the program's
bibliographic references will also enlarge your understanding of
this event. Questions for Consideration - According to some
accounts of the Sumter crisis, President Lincoln should bear the
major responsibility for the outbreak of war because his actions
were needlessly provocative. Although the Confederacy might have
fired the first shot, the real aggressor is not necessarily the
person who first resorts to violence. To what extent do you
agree with this assessme