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Incite in the world.

Several institutions and scholars are already using Incite to build, annotate, and research digital archives. These projects represent our growing community of users, educators, and historians and illustrate the diverse possibilities that Incite offers.
CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA

Mapping the



Fourth of July


Mapping the Fourth uses the power of crowdsourcing to rediscover how Independence Day was celebrated during the Civil War era. The long crisis of the Civil War, stretching from the 1840s to the 1870s, forced Americans to confront difficult questions about the meaning and the boundaries of their nation. What did it mean to be an American? Who was included and excluded? Where did the nation's borders lie? Did those words "all men are created equal" apply to southerners as well as northerners, black as well as white Americans, women as well as men? How should Americans commemorate their nation's founding when that nation appeared to be falling apart? But it was on one particular day each year, July 4th, that they left the most explicit evidence of their views. In newspapers and speeches, in personal diaries and letters to their friends and family, Americans gave voice to typically unspoken beliefs about national identity.


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A COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL ARCHIVE

The American Soldier


Early on, the War Department created an in-house social and behavioral sciences research unit to help citizens make this adjustment. Staffed with leading scholars, the Army's Research Branch was tasked with studying the American Soldier to help create a more efficient and effective fighting force. The Branch anonymously surveyed and interviewed around half a million personnel over the course of the war. Free from the threat of censorship or retaliation, these men and women not only filled out surveys, but tens of thousands provided additional handwritten commentary. They critiqued, cajoled, as well as praised. They shared personal stories of hardship, adjustment, and of accomplishment. Taken together, their commentary touches upon myriad facets of military service during this global conflict.


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