Civil War America : Making a Nation, 1848-1877.

Cover -- Civil War America -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Maps -- Note on the text -- Prologue. Independence Day, 1854 -- 1. A Robber and a Jailer: The Antebellum Republic -- National development and national identity -- Slavery and the antebellum South -- Life in the 'free states' -- The second party system -- 2. Bitter Fruit of an Unjust War: The Politics of Slavery Expansion, 1848-52 -- The political impact of the Mexican War -- The presidential election of 1848 -- The Compromise of 1850 -- The Democrats ascendant, 1850-52 -- 3. Political Crises of the 1850s -- The Kansas-Nebraska Act -- Politics in flux -- The Republican threat -- The eclipse of national Democracy and the election of Lincoln -- 4. The Disunited States: Secession and Civil War -- Secession and the outbreak of war, 1860-61 -- The chimera of victory, 1861-62 -- The triumph of Union arms, 1863-65 -- 5. Our Deliverance is Nigh: The Quest for Southern Independence -- Born in the CSA?: The unusual case of southern nationalism -- Confederate mobilization and state formation -- Nova ordo servorum -- Onward Christian soldiers -- The death of slavery and the collapse of the Confederacy -- 6. Last Full Measure of Devotion: The Union in Wartime -- Multiple agendas -- Government initiatives -- Dissent and democracy -- Restoring the Union: Phase one -- Victory! -- 7. War by Any Other Name: The Struggle over Reconstruction, 1865-76 -- The aftermath of war -- Congressional Reconstruction -- Black life in the postwar South -- The South redeemed -- 8. Land of Gold: The Far West in the Mid-Nineteenth Century -- The mining frontier -- The subjugation of the Plains Indians -- Toward a modern West -- The tribulations of Henry Eno -- 9. Reform, Reaction and Reunion at the Dawn of the Gilded Age.

The economy and society of postwar America -- Organizing for reform -- Faltering steps to reconciliation -- The electoral crisis of 1876-77 -- Conclusion. The Proving Time: The United States in the Era of Civil War -- Select Bibliography -- Index.

The American Civil War was without doubt the defining event in the history of the United States. This up-to-date analyisis of a critical period goes beyond the origins, course and consequences of the Civil War to bring in other important themes such as racial conflict, gender relations, religion, the popular memory and state formation.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.