how we try to explain this most pivotal event,

我们试图解释这次重大事件的核心
one of the most pivotal events of American history--

美国历史上最重要事件之一
is a certain respect for moral questions,

它是出于对道德问题的考虑
a certain respect for ideas,

出于对那些理念
and the notion that politics is sometimes about something.

以及政治就时论事的观点的考虑
Now that's an utterly horribly streamlined way of saying--

这种观点说出来非常得顺耳
you don't find many historians anymore

现在没有历史学家
who argue from a needless war perspective,

还认为战争是不必要战争的
although what you do find is a kind of

但是在美国学术界中
rollercoaster ride through American scholarship about the Civil War,

关于内战的学术研究总是起起伏伏
sometimes deeply influenced by Vietnam

有时候它深受越战的影响
and sometimes deeply influenced, even today

有时候它却影响着现在