3 ms·

If it had been prefaced with "By 1850" that would have been a reasonable title.

• evilduck 2y ago
  I still think it’s a bit harsh to judge it as contradictory without the rest of the paper. Another valid interpretation: “The Civil War was inevitable [given the sequence of historical events], but it didn’t have to be that way [if we hypothetically could change a couple small pivotal scenarios].” The rest of the paper would need to support that title of course, but a catchy title that causes someone to rage-read your paper is the literary equivalent of clickbait and a time honored tradition of aspiring writers.