How did the Civil War change life in the North, South, and West? Did the Reconstruction succeed? Think about and discuss the changes in societal structure, economy, politics, and so on.

The Civil War was the most disruptive and significant event in American history. It had a major impact on the whole country, North, South, and West.
As a shorthand, one could say that the North and West grew wealthy while the South languished—economically and socially—and took many years to recover from the effects of the war.
Northern cities grew dramatically in response to the war effort. The increased scale of production required to fight the war helped spur industrial development in the North. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the cities in the North witnessed major waves of freed slave migration. African Americans came to dwell in all the major cities of the North, dramatically changing their culture and demographics. American cities and urban culture would be forever altered.
The expansion of the West in the postbellum era was also significant. Many Southerners were pushed to flee to the West during and after the war, and the war was an important spur for migration. The Union Army, which after its victory over the South became the US Army, found new enemies and purpose fighting the Indian wars in the West from the 1860s onward. After the horrible crucible of total war, much of the attention of the nation turned toward forging new unity and national identity, and many saw the promise of this in the expansion and settlement of the West.
The South was devastated by the Civil War. The incredibly heavy casualties of the war represented a greater percentage of the Southern population. In fighting the Civil War, the South essentially spent all its available resources. Not only was a whole generation lost, a whole way of life was lost. The end of slavery meant the end of the basis of the Southern economy and what industrial infrastructure existed was essentially destroyed by the Union Army. One thinks here of the devastation of General Sherman's March to the Sea.
Reconstruction also deeply transformed the South. The carpetbaggers from the North who went down to the South after the war invested and created change in the economy, but most argue that the power still remained in the hands of wealthy Southern landowners for some time to come. The political Reconstruction imposed on the South was dramatic but not enduring. The Congress forced the South to recognize the rights of freed slaves through Enforcement Acts and initially these had a dramatic effect. Many African Americans were elected to Congress and the Senate in the immediate postbellum period.
However, the changes did not last and an entrenched Southern culture driven by racism fought back with what became known as the Jim Crow laws and, eventually, segregation. Many historians argue that the backlash against Reconstruction in the South had a devastating, long-term impact on the region.
There is no doubt that the Civil War dramatically altered the shape of the development of the country, but these changes were different in the different regions of the North, West, and South.