America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink

Rating:
Summary: The year that broke the Democracy
Review: America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink by Kenneth M. Stampp is a work on how the nation was in 1857, a pivotal year, where sectional conflict spun out of control. The Civil War is just four years in the distance and the mood of the nation is of unrest and there are forces that are plummeting the nation toward disaster.

James Buchanan, the President at the time, throws his support on the wrong side of the Kansas Statehood issue, in New York City there are bank closures, unemployment starts to skyrocket, and the Supreme Court, in a fit of judicial activism, hands down the Dred Scott decision. We see the proslavery and antislavery groups taking a more serious attempt to win favor with the Congress. The Mormon Utah Teritory can't have Brigham Young as their governor.

All this turmoil splits the Democratic party in two. Stephen Douglas splits the party against James Buchanan, repudiating and humiliating the president, which further devastated the Democrats, forcing the Untied States closer to the Civil War. This book is interesting and told with a flowing and well documented prose that is narrated with clarity.

I found that once you start the book, the author takes you to this unsettling year and makes you believe that you are actually there. With political frauds and urban gangs making the experience real, the author brings us to a time, in the nation's history, where William Walker can conquer Nicaragua and make in a slave state. This book opens ones eyes to the era where crime and corruption were attempting to take the country and rebellion wasn't far behind.

This is a good read to the prelude of events leading upto one of the Civil War and we get to see the country's mindset, something very hard to project, but the author seems to convey it quite well.

Rating:
Summary: America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
Review: America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink by Kenneth M. Stampp is a work on how the nation was in 1857, a pivotal year, where sectional conflict spun out of control. The Civil War is just four years in the distance and the mood of the nation is of unrest and there are forces that are plummeting the nation toward disaster.

James Buchanan, the President at the time, throws his support on the wrong side of the Kansas Statehood issue, in New York City there are bank closures, unemployment starts to skyrocket, and the Supreme Court, in a fit of judicial activism, hands down the Dred Scott decision. We see the proslavery and antislavery groups taking a more serious attempt to win favor with the Congress. The Mormon Utah Teritory can't have Brigham Young as their governor.

All this turmoil splits the Democratic party in two. Stephen Douglas splits the party against James Buchanan, repudiating and humiliating the president, which further devastated the Democrats, forcing the Untied States closer to the Civil War. This book is interesting and told with a flowing and well documented prose that is narrated with clarity.

I found that once you start the book, the author takes you to this unsettling year and makes you believe that you are actually there. With political frauds and urban gangs making the experience real, the author brings us to a time, in the nation's history, where William Walker can conquer Nicaragua and make in a slave state. This book opens ones eyes to the era where crime and corruption were attempting to take the country and rebellion wasn't far behind.

This is a good read to the prelude of events leading upto one of the Civil War and we get to see the country's mindset, something very hard to project, but the author seems to convey it quite well.

Rating:
Summary: The year that broke the Democracy
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Very good summary of turning point year of American History
Review: 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.