The sesqui­cen­ten­nial of the Civil War is an oppor­tu­nity to revisit its legacy; the many ways that it con­tinues to affect our society and cul­ture. Here, Pro­fessor Bal­lard Camp­bell, an expert in Amer­ican polit­ical his­tory, dis­cusses how the polit­ical divi­sions of the 1860s con­tinue to res­onate in our pol­i­tics. Camp­bell is a Dis­tin­guished Lec­turer for the Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­ican Historians.