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Title: The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854 by William W. Freehling ISBN: 0-19-507259-6 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Freehling Writes a Definitive History of Disunion
Comment: Mr. Freehling states in his preface that he had originally planned on writing about the Southern secession crisis of 1860-61, but he quickly realized that the subject was far too complicated to adequately and thoroughly cover it in such a limited time period. He discovered that, in order to give a complete picture of the road to disunion, he had to begin his study around the mid-1700s. After reading the result of his work, The Road to Disunion, I could understand and appreciate why he had to do so. This remarkable book covers the very complicated and, amazingly, still controversial topic of Southern secession with clarity, thoroughness, and even wit. Mr. Freehling chronicles the political and social history of the South and its place in American history in a way that is highly informative, highly researched, and highly readable.
Mr. Freehling relies heavily on the actual words of the southern political and social elite to paint a detailed and absorbing picture of ! the various crises that incrementally pulled the US apart. He provides the reader with a wealth of information and details on the Gag Rule Controversy, the Missouri Compromise, and the annexation of Texas among others, and his skill as an historian and as a writer make all these events extremely clear and understandable for perhaps the first time. He also gives the reader a richly detailed portrait of the South that cracks, if not shatters, the idea of "a unified South". Mr. Freehling describes the diversity of the region, the differences in commerce, in attitudes, in climate, and ultimately, the people. This absorbing portrait allows the reader to see the South in three dimensions, and makes the accomplishment of bringing most of the south into a southern confederacy through the efforts of southern political leaders such as Robert Barnwell Rhett, Howell Cobb, and John C. Calhoun much more intriguing.
Ultimately, The Road to Disunion accomplishes one major tas! k; it demonstrates that the issue of slavery was THE primar! y factor in the breakup of the Union. Freehling shows that the Civil War was a direct result of a history of Southern political and class arrogance, of a small group of influential people clinging to an antiquated feudal system that enslaved a race of people, and a series of subsequent clashes between ideologies. Great-grandpa Silas may have rightly said he was fighting for his rights or to protect his home and family, but the causes of the conflict in which he fought have much more complicated beginnings. Regardless of Silas' motives, he was by default fighting for the preservation of slavery.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting (though tedious) read overall
Comment: I found the book intriguing and generally enjoyed it. The style is as noted a bit tedious and professorial, but the subject matter made the wading worth it.
Only one real complaint I have about the book - which I offer only partially tongue in cheek:
Is Mr. Freehling aware that there are two Carolinas? Has he ever heard of North Carolina? Of all of the states in the south, there is essentially no mention of any of the similar (and at times dissimilar) political wrangling and complexities in this state. North Carolina has something like four to five sentences in passing in the entire book! Even the "tour of the south" skips from Charleston to Richmond.
Coupled with the author's infuriating habit of referring to "Carolina" when he only means South Carolina, this was a real disappointment. I didn't expect the volume to spend inordinate time on other states like NC, it is true that Virginia and South Carolina are the more interesting and complex situations, and clearly his interest is in border states - but I did expect some analysis of other southern states. This was a glaring gap to me.
Professor Freehling, in your next effort - try "Palmetto State" or something to denote recognition that when you speak about South Carolina, you are not talking about the very different state to the north. Perhaps you could even bone up a bit on the Old North State...
Rating: 4
Summary: Idiosyncratic, to say the least
Comment: Agreeing fully with most of the positive reviews of this book, I can't help but comment on William Freehling's prose style. It is idiosyncratic in the extreme. He pursues his theses tirelessly and with dramatic verve, but he relies on an authorial voice that I can only describe as Professorial Ironic. He tends to rely heavily on headlines and labels to pin-point the heady mix of differing political positions available to the actors in this history. The effect is most akin to what I can only imagine is a lecture given by Prof Freehling to his grad students. I can't say I got used to it, despite reading the whole volume. The only other thing to add, is that he puts his case so thoroughly, of a disunited political and cultural South, that it's hard to imagine how the South every got its collective act together to secede at all.
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Title: Impending Crisis by David Morris Potter ISBN: 0061319295 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 15 April, 1977 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics by Don E. Fehrenbacher ISBN: 0195145887 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $23.50 |
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Title: The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War by Michael F. Holt ISBN: 0195161041 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War by Eric Foner ISBN: 0195094972 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Political Crisis of the 1850s by Michael F. Holt ISBN: 039395370X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 1983 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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