The American Civil War took place 150 years ago. War tore the young country apart and pitted brother against brother. The American Civil War ended the most grotesque American institution in its history and left the nation struggling for the next decade to recover from the devastation. The war caused a wealthy class to lose control over the Southern economy and ended politics influenced by whether you were for or against slavery. The war resulted in the deaths of over 620,000 men, approximately 2% of the population. The American Civil War is worth remembering today. This is worth remembering because it shapes the identity of who Americans are today. Without it, we cannot understand why a nation might be divided over the death of a young delinquent named Trayvon Martin. Without it we cannot understand how Martin Luther King Jr. fought to realize his dream. Without it we cannot understand why women fought for the right to suffrage in the 1920s. What was the American Civil War about? States' rights? Slavery? Both? Maybe this doesn't matter, maybe all that matters are the final results, the prohibition of slavery, and the emergence of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The nation emerged with a new identity of freedom, not just white people, but people of all colors. But the war did not put an end to discrimination or racism, it saw different forms manifest themselves; forms that still influence us today. The Civil War is worth remembering because it still shapes America's identity today. Let's first examine the cultural implications the Civil War had on us today. Today in America we are shaped as a culture by diversity and dreams. By diversity I mean that we are a culture that, while predominantly white, is filled with many ethnicities of pe... means of paper... evil war." In The War It Was You and I: Civilians in the American Civil War, ed. Joan E. Cashin, 136-156. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Snay, Mitchell, Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson. 2000): 217. Print.McPHERSON, James M. “Big Issues in Civil War and Reconstruction.” (n. p.) in Big Issues in American History Series .Dew, Charles B. Apostles of Disunion: Commissioners of Southern Secession and the Causes of the Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2001. Print.Douglass, Frederick and Frederick Douglass. An Account of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Other Works , nd Print."The Pledge of Allegiance." NP, nd Web. 14 November. 2015.