I agree with you on the beaurocracy issue, but assuming that the North had lost the war, and the "State's rights" theory was implemented nationwide, do you guys think we could have counted on All of our 50 states (even CaliforniaIJ) to join in on the two World Wars that we helped to winIJ I don't know myself, just wondering what you guys think. Another way of looking at this too - look what happened to the former Soviet Union when it was split up. What once was a superpower is now a collection of "state_countries" that are very weak. Now I realize that Communism led to their current state of affairs, but would the USA be as strong as we are if it weren't for this overbearing gubbermint we have that makes decisions as a wholeIJ Methinks someone should create a software program that runs on a supercomputer that would play out what might have happened if the South had won, just out of curiousity. Tom Russell - you and I went through school at two way different times. I can honestly say that there was none of what you mentioned in my schooling. I'd say that we were taught that the war was about slavery, rather than the more correct issue of State's rights, but there was no mention about "evil rebels". There was no bias that I can remember. In fact, I always did believe that the war was more about slavery until I lived in Texas for about a year, and then watched the PBS series "The Cival War". I'd reccomend it to anyone, especially vstk! Tom langan