Volume 4, No. 1 (Spring 2001)
It is important to note that the economic theory of war does not necessarily displace the historical explanations that rest on such factors as internal dissension, a failure of leadership or diplomacy, the demise of the railroads orthe economy, or some combination of these factors. Rather, economic theory, properly applied, provides an approach in which all of these factors can be properly understood—each the result of interventionist government policy and each contributing to an understanding of the overall Confederate defeat. In addition, this article provides insight into how Confederate defeat might have been avoided had policy been pursued on the basis of the free-trade philosophy of the prewar South.
