The Civil War in Four Minutes: and how it is relevant today

For those of you who regret your poor American history education as I do, here's your chance to learn more about the Civil War in four minutes than you ever learned in High School history class. Here's hoping this illustration becomes part of many curriculum's across America. We should know our history better. [hat tip Pharyngula]

For instance, I doubt many remember that the fighting continued a bit after the surrender, or just how close the south came to winnning. It is also interesting to see that the Union didn't overun the Confederacy, but sliced it up, first down the Mississippi to the famous battle at Vicksburg, when the tide really turned. Grant then sliced up the remaining portion right down through Georgia to the sea.

It's a bloody part of our history, one we should remember, because it could happen again. If one peruses the last couple of Presidential Electoral maps, and notes the increasingly partisan and divsive political rhetoric, we are setting ourselves up to be two nations: the "blue" Democratic states occupying the northern and western coastal states, and the remaining "red" Republican states. Demonization of "the other" combined with georgraphic seperation is a recipe for civil war. Let's hope the next president breaks this cycle.