America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
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Book Overview
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.
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.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0195039025
ISBN13:9780195039023
Release Date:November 1990
Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
Length:416 Pages
Weight:1.70 lbs.
Dimensions:1.4" x 6.5" x 9.6"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
Pre-Civil War
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
The book by Stampp is a very good look into the events prior to the Civil War. The year 1857 was frought with issues and factors which would lead to the spark for the Civil War. Stampp investigates the issues of the year very thoroughly. Stampp is one of the best Civil War historians, and this book will get you good insight to Pre-Civil War United States. This book is priced reasonably and holds a good amount of information. The detailed attack and the aftermath in the Senate is included, and provides an example of the hostility that was brewing in 1857.
Villains and Heroes of the Pre-Civil War
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
This book has a lot to tell people even if they think they know all about the Civil War. It covers the year 1857 and Mr. Stampp makes a persuasive case that this year was the year that made the Civil War inevitable. Bad Presidents often get stigmatized with the reputation that they were merely ineffectual. Often, this allows the really bad Presidents from getting off the hook for active wrongdoing. Herbert Hoover for instance is hardly known for instituting the first Presidential break-in of political enemies which became common practice among almost all of his successors until Richard Nixon was caught. And people remember Bill Clinton for Monica Lewinsky, not for being the first President to receive bribes from Red China. So it is with James Buchanan, whose intervention in the Kansas controversy was so outrageous that he brought about the collapse of the Democratic Party and the dissolution of the Union. Stampp also makes it clear why Stephen A. Douglas deserves his reputation as a great man. Stampp gives you a flavor of the year, so much that you almost feel that you are there. I would have preferred more cultural news - what the people were reading, what was playing in the theaters - but there is no reason for complaining about a book which didn't get written. As it stands, this is a splendid acheivement.
The year that broke the Democracy
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Kenneth Stampp, one of the country's most distinguished historians, focuses on the pivotal year of 1857. The new president comes into office as a reconciliation Democrat, pledged to unite the country, with his party in firm control of Congress. Many predict that the new Republican Party will wither away in the calmer times ahead. Instead of that, events in Kansas, the Dredd Scott case, the panic of 1857, and struggle within the Democratic Party between Northerners, Unionists and Fire Eaters (proto-Secessionists) wreck the party and leave the Republicans with a clear road to the White House. The President's rigid response and limited point of view leave his party in ruins. The future seems to belong to the radical Republicans and the Disunionist South.The book is quite well written, and flows like a suspense novel, even though you know how it will end. I read most of "1857" in one sitting, eager to see what would happen next. "Nation on the Brink" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the year which it appeared,but lost out in a very strong field. Another reviewer complained that Stampp centered his argument on 1857 and neglected things which came before. That is the focus of the book, which is not an introduction to U.S. history. I don't believe that too much background is required, but David Potter's "Impending Crisis" is a good book if you want to study the 15 years before the war, and would provide a good companion to "Nation on the Brink".Finally, it should be noted that Stampp is reluctant to draw conclusions, spending most of his time reporting the events of the year-- perfect for people who know a little about the era.
America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink by Kenneth M. Stampp is a work on how the nation was in 1857, a pivotal year, where sectional conflict spun out of control. The Civil War is just four years in the distance and the mood of the nation is of unrest and there are forces that are plummeting the nation toward disaster.James Buchanan, the President at the time, throws his support on the wrong side of the Kansas Statehood issue, in New York City there are bank closures, unemployment starts to skyrocket, and the Supreme Court, in a fit of judicial activism, hands down the Dred Scott decision. We see the proslavery and antislavery groups taking a more serious attempt to win favor with the Congress. The Mormon Utah Teritory can't have Brigham Young as their governor.All this turmoil splits the Democratic party in two. Stephen Douglas splits the party against James Buchanan, repudiating and humiliating the president, which further devastated the Democrats, forcing the Untied States closer to the Civil War. This book is interesting and told with a flowing and well documented prose that is narrated with clarity.I found that once you start the book, the author takes you to this unsettling year and makes you believe that you are actually there. With political frauds and urban gangs making the experience real, the author brings us to a time, in the nation's history, where William Walker can conquer Nicaragua and make in a slave state. This book opens ones eyes to the era where crime and corruption were attempting to take the country and rebellion wasn't far behind.This is a good read to the prelude of events leading upto one of the Civil War and we get to see the country's mindset, something very hard to project, but the author seems to convey it quite well.
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