Slavery, Capitalism and Politics in the Antebellum Republic: Volume 2, The Coming of the Civil War, 1850–1861

This book asks why the United States experienced a civil war in 1861 and analyses the descent into war in the final decade of peace.

John Ashworth (Author)

9780521713696, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 January 2008

694 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 4.2 cm, 1.03 kg

"...a comprehensive, almost encyclopedic, examination of political ideology from Andrew Jackson's presidency to the firing on Fort Sumter." -James L. Huston, The Journal of Southern History

The second and concluding volume of Professor Ashworth's study of American antebellum politics, this book offers an exciting new interpretation of the origins of the Civil War. The volume deals with the politics of the 1850s and with the plunge into civil war. Professor Ashworth offers a new way of understanding the conflict between North and South and shows how northern free labor increasingly came into conflict with southern slavery as a result of both changes in the northern economy and the structural weaknesses of slavery.

Part I. Slavery versus Antislavery: 1. Combating the weaknesses of slavery: Southern militants, 1850–1861
2. The antislavery challenge: the Republicans, 1854–1861
Part II. Polarisation and Collapse: 3. The disintegration of democratic hegemony: northern and national Democrats, 1850–1861
4. Political realignment: collapse of the Whigs and neo-Whigs, 1848–1861
Conclusion: explaining the Civil War (II).

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], History of the Americas [HBJK]