Research Catalog

America in 1857 : a nation on the brink

Title
America in 1857 : a nation on the brink / Kenneth M. Stampp.
Author
Stampp, Kenneth M. (Kenneth Milton)
Publication
  • New York : Oxford University Press, 1990.
  • [©1990].

Items in the Library & Off-site

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1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library E436 .S78 1990Off-site

Details

Description
ix, 388 pages; 25 cm
Summary
"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-Morman 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."--Jacket
Subject
Genre/Form
History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references.
Contents
A new year and a fresh start -- Politics and the social milieu -- James Buchanan : President-elect -- The President, the Chief Justice, and a slave named Scott -- The heart of the matter : slavery and sectionalism -- Popular sovereignty, Kansas style -- Dog days -- Flush times and an autumn panic -- Northern politics : the parties in equipoise -- Politics as farce : the Lecompton Constitution -- Politics as tragedy : Buchanan's decision -- 1858 : the fruits of Lecompton.
ISBN
  • 0195039025
  • 9780195039023
  • 0195074815
  • 9780195074819
  • 9786610441587
  • 6610441588
LCCN
90031374
OCLC
  • ocm21030400
  • 21030400
  • SCSB-1925116
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library