A house divided : sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1865
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
A house divided : sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1865
（The American moment）
Johns Hopkins University Press, c1988
- : hbk
- : pbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. [197]-214
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
What caused the Civil War? Perhaps no question in American history has attracted more interest or sparked more debate. A House Divided presents a fresh and balanced interpretation that challenges the view of slavery as a largely artificial or symbolic issue in the conflict between two incompatible societies. While recognizing the impact of other political disputes and of such concerns as temperance and nativism, Richard Sewell refocuses attention on slavery as the root of sectionalism and, ultimately, the war.
A House Divided traces the growth of bitter cetional discord in the years after 1848, when the acquisition of new American territories rekindled old controversies over the expansion of slavery. A series of compromises forestalled the crisis of secession but increasingly divided the country along slavery's lines. Attitudes toward slavery also influenced the conduct and consequences of the war that followed. The union army rapidly accepted the enlistment of emancipated slaves, while the Confederacy faced both subtle subversion from its black labor firce and sagging morale from the alveless Southern whites who felt disproportionately burdened by the war effort. Sewell's rich account of the war covers both military and home fronts and traces the birth of plans to reconstruct the Union and deal with the legacy of slavery.
Table of Contents
Editor's Foreword
Chapter 1. The American People at Mid-Century
Chapter 2. The Legacy of the Mexican War
Chapter 3. "A Hell of a Storm"
Chapter 4. "And the War Came"
Chapter 5. Call to Arms
Chapter 6. The War at Home
Chapter 7. The Blue and the Gray
Chapter 8. The Destruction of Slavery
Chapter 9. Looking Ahead: Wartime Reconstruction
Bibliographical Essay
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
