I was hoping that yesterday’s post would not turn into another round of the same old back and forth over the cause of the war, but that is exactly what happened. Unfortunately, most of what is usually offered in such discussions lacks any serious analysis and/or context. I was hoping to encourage readers to share those books that have informed their understanding of the coming of secession and war. For what it’s worth, here are a few of my favorites, though I could just as easily have chosen five others.
- James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)
- William Freehling, The Road to Disunion, Vol. 1: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854
- William Freehling, The Road to Disunion: Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861
- Charles Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War
- David Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861
Feel free to add to this list.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I always thought Eric Foner’s Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War was a good book to be on that list.
I agree with Chris on Free Soil, Free Men, Free Labor.
Also will add:
Drew Gilpin Faust, The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South, 1830-1860
I would heartily concur with Potter’s book as well as his Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis. I am in the midst of reading Freehling’s first book so I would concur with that as well. I would add Stanley Harrold’s Border War: Fighting Over Slavery Before the Civil War. I think that is a tremendous book.
However, there is none better than Potter, in my humble opinion
Brad
It’s nice to have it back in print.
For me, I’d add William Gienapp’s The Origins of the Republican Party
Michael Holt’s The Political Crisis of the 1850s.
Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds
Christopher Olsen, Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi
Craig Simpson’s A Good Southerner
Thanks, Ken.
I am not familiar with Olsen’s book. Will have to check it out.
I enjoyed the cartoon. It is both funny and very instructive about CW memory. The first cause mentioned was slavery–just the word. Then there are other causes, the extension of slavery–different economic systems–secession. This is a very standard “list.” But its not a “list” in that many of the issues are subsets of slavery. In the rhetoric of CW memory, if you say “slavery” the assumption is the desire to end it caused the war. So here is what scholars say it was not slavery but its “extension” ahhhhhh (Pause). Why the equivocation, if it its the extension of slavery then its slavery. The different economic system is also funny, Northerners were mostly “farmers.” These were small farms, and they did not have slaves; so the differences relate to “Slavery.” I am going to use this cartoon in class, its great.
Hey Barbara,
I think it’s interesting for that very reason as well. That slavery made it to the top of the list is a clear reflection of how popular perceptions have changed in recent years.
Kevin,
I would like to nominate Lacy K. Ford’s Deliver Us From Evil, The Slavery Question in the Old South for inclusion on this list.
Best,
Scott
The Causes of the Civil War edt by Kenneth Stampp. It does answer any question, but it gives the basic primary sources and historian interpretations.
For the state’s rights/economic perspective The Real Lincoln by Thomas Dilorenzo
I can’t say I recommend Dilorenzo, but I can recommend Marc Egnal’s Clash of Extremes even if I think there are some pretty big problems with his interpretation.
I still like Channing’s Crisis of Fear: Secession in South Carolina. It’s been useful for me current research on how Americans anticipated the Civil War.
A great suggestion. One of my personal favorite CW titles, period.
So, you asked “Who Best Interprets the Coming of the Civil War?” I read that question a bit differently than most, because using the term “interpret” goes in very different places for an NPS person.
I think that both the Morgan Freeman film and the History channel exhibit films presented at Gettysburg NMP do an excellent job of interpreting the cause and context of the war, offering a keen description of the economic centrality of slavery to American life and the problems raised by even the conception of extricating it.
The Corinth NPS Visitor Center also does a very good job of laying out the cause of the war, never eschewing the fact that slavery was the spark point but offering that evidence adeptly and in measured doses for a possibly hostile audience. There is a good deal of “analyze the document” type of exhibitry, giving original sources to read and ponder (the example that stand out in my mind is the Declaration of Causes of Secession as printed in a local newspaper). I visited a couple years ago and was deeply impressed.
Hi John,
Please feel free to steer the discussion in this direction.
John, I agree about the film at Gettysburg, I wish it was offered for sale.
The books that most changed my mind about the coming of the war were Freehling’s Road to Disunion pair. I really did not understand the complexity of Southern society and politics. Dew was great, but, as I had already read all the secession documents years earlier, his book just confirmed what I already knew.
Freehling, Dew, Potter, and Foner are all excellent; Manning’s “What This Cruel War was Over” for some social history is useful, and I think Morgan’s “American Slavery, American Freedom” gives a good foundation.
But that’s just me.