Was the Civil War inevitable? What really caused it? Drawing on original sources--from Jefferson Davis to Frederick Douglass--and interpretive essays by today's most influential historians, this collection of essays gives a vivid sense of the political, economic, and cultural currents that swept the nation to war.

The causes of the Civil War, (A Spectrum book. Eyewitness accounts of American history)

History

Stampp, Kenneth M.

Americas

PRENTICE/HALL

A history of the United States with an emphasis on public policy. Includes maps, photos, charts, and suggestions for further reading.

The National Experience: A History of the United States

MORGAN, Edmund S.

McFeely, William S.

Blum, John M.

Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M.

Wadsworth Publishing

Comments on the inevitability of the Civil War, the rise of the Republican Party, the will of the South to win, and the effect of slavery on the slave and slaveowner

The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War

Oxford University Press

A collection of essays by a master historian. Amongst the subjects that Stampp tackles are the inevitability of the Civil War and the truth about why the confederacy actually died. The other essays are a mix of historiography and analysis of issues including Lincoln's role in reinforcing Fort Sumter, the impact of psychology in trading slaves, and the role of racism in the Republican Party.

Business & Money

Economics

It was a year packed with unsettling events. The Panic of 1857 closed every bank in New York City, ruined thousands of businesses, and caused widespread unemployment among industrial workers. The Mormons in Utah Territory threatened rebellion when federal troops approached with a non-Mormon governor to replace Brigham Young. The Supreme Court outraged northern Republicans and abolitionists with the Dred Scott decision ("a breathtaking example of judicial activism"). And when a proslavery minority in Kansas Territory tried to foist a proslavery constitution on a large antislavery majority, President Buchanan reneged on a crucial commitment and supported the minority, a disastrous miscalculation which ultimately split the Democratic party in two. In America in 1857, eminent American historian Kenneth Stampp offers a sweeping narrative of this eventful year, covering all the major crises while providing readers with a vivid portrait of America at mid-century. Stampp gives us a fascinating account of the attempt by William Walker and his band of filibusters to conquer Nicaragua and make it a slave state, of crime and corruption, and of street riots by urban gangs such as New York's Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys and Baltimore's Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs. But the focus continually returns to Kansas. He examines the outrageous political frauds perpetrated by proslavery Kansans, Buchanan's calamitous response and Stephen Douglas's break with the President (a rare event in American politics, a major party leader repudiating the president he helped elect), and the whirl of congressional votes and dramatic debates that led to a settlement humiliating to Buchanan--and devastating to the Democrats. 1857 marked a turning point, at which sectional conflict spun out of control and the country moved rapidly toward the final violent resolution in the Civil War. Stampp's intensely focused look at this pivotal year illuminates the forces at work and the mood of the nation as it plummeted toward disaster.

America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink

It was a year packed with unsettling events. The Panic of 1857 closed every bank in New York City, ruined thousands of businesses, and caused widespread unemployment among industrial workers. The Mormons in Utah Territory threatened rebellion when federal troops approached with a non-Mormon governor to replace Brigham Young. The Supreme Court outraged northern Republicans and abolitionists with the Dred Scott decision ("a breathtaking example of judicial activism"). And when a proslavery minority in Kansas Territory tried to foist a proslavery constitution on a large antislavery majority, President Buchanan reneged on a crucial commitment and supported the minority, a disastrous miscalculation which ultimately split the Democratic party in two. In America in 1857, eminent American historian Kenneth Stampp offers a sweeping narrative of this eventful year, covering all the major crises while providing readers with a vivid portrait of America at mid-century. Stampp gives us a fascinating account of the attempt by William Walker and his band of filibusters to conquer Nicaragua and make it a slave state, of crime and corruption, and of street riots by urban gangs such as New York's Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys and Baltimore's Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs. But the focus continually returns to Kansas. He examines the outrageous political frauds perpetrated by proslavery Kansans, Buchanan's calamitous response and Stephen Douglas's break with the President (a rare event in American politics, a major party leader repudiating the president he helped elect), and the whirl of congressional votes and dramatic debates that led to a settlement humiliating to Buchanan--and devastating to the Democrats. 1857 marked a turning point, at which sectional conflict spun out of control and the country moved rapidly toward the final violent resolution in the Civil War. Stampp's intensely focused look at this pivotal year illuminates the forces at work and the mood of the nation as it plummeted toward disaster.

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

Offers a new slant on life as a slave in the antebellum South and tells how slavery brought about its own end

Peculiar Institution

KNOPF

The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South [paperback] Stampp, Kenneth M. [Feb 12, 1964] ...

The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Vintage

Stampp's classic work offers a revisionist explanation for the radical failure to achieve equality for blacks, and of the effect that Conservative rule had on the subsequent development of the South. Refuting former schools of thought, Stampp challenges the notions that slavery was somehow just a benign aspect of Southern culture, and how the failures during the reconstruction period created a ripple effect that is still seen today. Praise for The Era of Reconstruction: “ . . . This “brief political history of reconstruction” by a well-known Civil War authority is a thoughtful and detailed study of the reconstruction era and the distorted legends still clinging to it.”—Kirkus Reviews “It is to be hoped that this work reaches a large audience, especially among people of influence, and will thus help to dispel some of the myths about Reconstructions that hamper efforts in the civil rights field to this day.”—Albert Castel, Western Michigan University

The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877

Winner of the Lincoln Prize Stampp’s classic study of American slavery as a deliberately chosen, practical system of controlling and exploiting labor is one of the most important and influential works of American history written in our time. “A thoughtful and deeply moving book. . . . Mr. Stampp wants to show specifically what slavery was like, why it existed, and what it did to the American people.”—Bruce Catton

Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stampp, Kenneth M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stampp, Kenneth M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stampp, Kenneth M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The causes of the Civil War, (A Spectrum book. Eyewitness accounts of American history)

The National Experience: A History of the United States

The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War

The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War

America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink

America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink

Peculiar Institution

The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South

The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877

Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South