Product Description

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 wide-spread unemployment. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175698 in Books
• Published on: 1992-04-30
• Released on: 1993-07-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
1857 marked the climax of the pro-slavery South's political power; it was a year dominated by the issue of slavery in the Federal territories. In this scholarly study Stampp ( The Imperiled Union ) zeroes in on the Lecompton convention, during which a pro-slavery minority in the Kansas territory attempted to impose its will on the anti-slavery majority. When President James Buchanan, reneging on a campaign promise, endorsed the pro-slavery Lecompton constitution, an epic debate ensued in Congress, led by Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas. The pro-slavery move was defeated, but the resulting schism within the Democratic party opened the way for the presidential candidacy of Abraham Lincoln and the escalation of North-South tensions that led to civil war. Stampp also discusses other signal events of that dark year, including the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, the financial Panic of 1857 and the Mormon rebellion in Utah. His sweeping survey ably demonstrates how the growing tension between North and South reached "the political point of no return." Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Eminent historian Stampp ( The Peculiar Institution , Knopf 1956; The Imperiled Union , LJ 5/1/80) argues that 1857, not 1860, marked the political and emotional point of no return between North and South. Covering the economic depression (Northerners suffered, Southerners gloated), the Dred Scott decision, Kansas troubles, filibustering in Nicaragua, religious revivals, crime, land speculation, Mormons in Utah, and more, Stampp portrays a people so divided along class, ethno-religious, and sectional lines that one wonders what glue held the nation together. Stronger on politics than social history, and strained by a premise that makes events move lock-step toward secession, this book will not satisfy professional historians so much as it will engage and inform general readers, but Stampp forces all to rethink the chronology and dynamic of American unity and identity. Recommended for college libraries.
- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A well-written, usable book that sets the scene for the Civil War. Perfect for an upper division seminar."--Carolle J. Carter, Menlo College

"Outstanding, much-needed interpretation by a premier historian."--Glen Barrett, Boise State University

"An invaluable book for a specialized course such as I teach in U.S. History 1820-1865. It provides all the needed data and details frequently omitted in other textbooks. A most welcome addition to available sources covering the crucial period on the eve of the War Between the State."--Alexander Niven, St. Louis University

"[A] splendidly lucid, elegantly crafted, and exciting narrative."--New York Newsday

"His sweeping survey ably demonstrates how the growing tension between North and South reached 'the political point of no return.'"--Publishers Weekly

"A skillfull narrative about a pivotal year...featuring the author's usual judicious analysis."--Kirkus Reviews

"A graceful narrative....[A] detailed and comprehensive examination....An important statement on the coming of the civil war."--Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

"An immensely readable book....Vivid history of a period that should be more familiar than it is."--Newark Star-Ledger

"[Kenneth Stampp's] new book, richly detailed, judicious, and convincing in its recreation of complex events and decisions, will appeal to specialists and general readers alike....A compelling exploration of the struggle between proslavery and free state forces in Kansas."--Gateway Heritage

"A particularly enlightening book."--Booklist

Customer Reviews

The year that broke the Democracy
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.

Villains and Heroes of the Pre-Civil War
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.

Very good summary of turning point year of American History
The author concentrates on events in the year 1857 to illustrate how America got from there to the Civil war. Featuring such landmark events as the Dred Scott decision of the supreme court, the ineptness of the Buchanan administration, and the financial panic, Stampp attempts to show how this year was a turning point in our history. The problem is that he attempts to do so in a vacuum, ignoring events that went before and after, so that the view is somewhat distorted. All the same, it shows many events that are unfamiliar to the reader and enlightens on how we entered, and could have avoided, a major internal conflict only four years later.