If you need more help . . .

If you need further assistence with research on this topic, let me suggest either of the books, Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson, or The Impending Crisis, by David M. Potter. For a broader list of books on the coming of the Civil War, you might want to consult the following reading list, prepared by Dwight Pitcaithley:

  • Abrahamson, James L.; The Men of Secession and Civil War, 1859-1861. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2000.
  • Ayers, Edward L.; What Caused the Civil War?: Reflections on the South and Southern History. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2005.
  • Dew, Charles B.; Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
  • Faust, Drew Gilpin.; The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.
  • Fehrenbacher, Don. E.; The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
  • Freehling, William W.; The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War. New York: Oxford University, 1994.
  • --------------------------- The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  • --------------------------- The Road to Disunion: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
  • Holt, Michael F.; The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
  • Huston, James L.; Calculating the Value of the Union: Slavery, Property Rights, and the Economic Origins of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
  • Klein, Maury.; Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
  • Lankford, Nelson D.; Cry Havoc!: The Crooked Road to Civil War, 1861. New York: Viking, 2007.
  • Levine, Bruce.; Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.
  • Link, William A.; Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
  • Morrison, Michael A.; Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
  • Silbey, Joel H.; Storm Over Texas: The Annexation Controversy and the Road to the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Stampp, Kenneth (ed.),  The Causes of the Civil War: Revised Edition, Touchstone, 1992.
  • Wakelyn, Jon L., ed.; Southern Pamphlets on Secession, November 1860-April 1861. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.



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