Sign-In
Cart
America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
Paperback
Games & Activities GeneralCivil War Period (1850-1877)
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0195074815
ISBN13: 9780195074819
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Apr 30 1992
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.38
Height: 1.06 Width: 5.94 Depth: 9.14
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780195074819
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Apr 30 1992
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.38
Height: 1.06 Width: 5.94 Depth: 9.14
Language: English
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-Mormon 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.
In America in 1857, eminent American historian Kenneth Stampp offers a sweeping narrative of this eventful year, covering all the major crises while providing readers with a vivid portrait of America at mid-century. Stampp gives us a fascinating account of the attempt by William Walker and his band of filibusters to conquer Nicaragua and make it a slave state, of crime and corruption, and of street riots by urban gangs such as New York's Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys and Baltimore's Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs. But the focus continually returns to Kansas. He examines the outrageous political frauds perpetrated by proslavery Kansans, Buchanan's calamitous response and Stephen Douglas's break with the President (a rare event in American politics, a major party leader repudiating the president he helped elect), and the whirl of congressional votes and dramatic debates that led to a settlement humiliating to Buchanan--and devastating to the Democrats.
1857 marked a turning point, at which sectional conflict spun out of control and the country moved rapidly toward the final violent resolution in the Civil War. 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.
1857 marked a turning point, at which sectional conflict spun out of control and the country moved rapidly toward the final violent resolution in the Civil War. 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.
Also in
Civil War Period (1850-1877)
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Paperback
$19.80
The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America
Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe
Hardcover
$29.45
The Confederacy Myth: How an Insurrection of Slaveholders Tried to Destroy the United States
Williams, Connor
Hardcover
$27.00
America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick
Crawford, Bob
Hardcover
$26.60
Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future
Bordewich, Fergus M.
Hardcover
From $19.99
Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War
Fields-Black, Edda L.
Hardcover
$39.89
Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past
Brown, Dorothy A.
Hardcover
$27.00
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
Ellsworth, Scott
Hardcover
$30.40
The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War
Quigley, Paul
Hardcover
$34.99
Lincoln on Leadership for Today: Abraham Lincoln's Approach to Twenty-First-Century Issues
Phillips, Donald T.
Paperback
$18.04
If I Can Get Home This Fall: A Story of Love, Loss, and a Cause in the Civil War
Alexander, Tyler
Hardcover
$35.10
Lincoln's Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War
Willis, Gerri
Hardcover
$26.09
Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
From $10.99
The Road Was Full of Thorns: Running Toward Freedom in the American Civil War
Zoellner, Tom
Hardcover
$33.24
Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America
Nelson, Megan Kate
Hardcover
$9.99
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Baptist, Edward E.
Paperback
$23.74
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
Foner, Eric
Paperback
$17.05
Behind the Scenes: Or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House
Keckley, Elizabeth
Paperback
$12.50
The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West
Nelson, Megan Kate
Paperback
$18.99
The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman: The Complete Annotated Edition
Sherman, William T.
Hardcover
$37.95
We Gather Together: The True Story of Thanksgiving and the Woman Who Fought to Make It an American Holiday
Kiernan, Denise
Paperback
$24.00
Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
Johnson, Paul
Paperback
$18.99
Maine's Place in History: Joshua Chamberlain's 1876 Address at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition
Chamberlain, Joshua
Hardcover
$29.95
The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896
White, Richard
Paperback
$28.49
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Sinha, Manisha
Paperback
$17.99
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (National Book Award Finalist)
Faust, Drew Gilpin
Paperback
$18.05
Everything You Were Taught about the Civil War Is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!
Seabrook, Lochlainn
Paperback
$24.99
Abolitionists of the Northeast: Black Leaders in the Antislavery Movement
MacDonald, Gail Braccidiferro
Paperback
$24.95
The Regular Army Before the Civil War 1845 - 1860
Center of Military History United States
Clayton R. Newell
Paperback
$21.54
Lincoln's Road to War: A Day-by-Day Account of the First 60 Days of Abraham Lincoln's Presidency
Johnson, David Alan
Hardcover
$29.95
Seeking Freedom in Indian Country: Slavery, Sovereignty, and Resistance Within the Five Tribes, 1790-1861
Oertel, Kristen Tegtmeier
Hardcover
$42.70
A Promise Delivered: Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation's Military Bases
Williams, Connor
Seidule, Ty
Hardcover
$26.10
A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coast Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816-1867
Weaver, John R.
Hardcover
$61.70
Civil War Camps and Soldier Health: Sanitation and Military Effectiveness in the Union Army
Hess, Earl J.
Paperback
$55.93
Such Troops as These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson
Alexander, Bevin
Paperback
$27.00
The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
Wineapple, Brenda
Paperback
$29.00
To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876
Baier, Bret
Whitney, Catherine
Paperback
$20.89
Freedom Was in Sight: A Graphic History of Reconstruction in the Washington, D.C., Region
Masur, Kate
Paperback
$22.80
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights
Wickenden, Dorothy
Paperback
$19.95
A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story Is Founded
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Paperback
From $10.99
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
Gates, Henry Louis
Paperback
From $10.99
Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery
Kreitner, Richard
Hardcover
$30.40
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp: An African American Woman's Civil War Memoir
Taylor, Susie King
Paperback
$33.53
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever
O'Reilly, Bill
Dugard, Martin
Paperback
$19.00
Defending Dixie's Land: What Every American Should Know About The South and The Civil War
Bishop, Isaac C.
Hardcover
$37.95
Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War's Deadliest Battle
Franco, Barbara
Hardcover
$33.20
Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South
Silkenat, David
Hardcover
$57.99
Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero
Lineberry, Cate
Paperback
$19.00
Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency
Abrams, Dan
Fisher, David
Paperback
$17.99
Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier
Jonusas, Susan
Paperback
$17.10
To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of John Brown [Updated Edition]
Oates, Stephen B.
Hardcover
$46.19
Abolitionists of the Northeast: Black Leaders in the Antislavery Movement
MacDonald, Gail Braccidiferro
Hardcover
$39.95
Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave
Fleischner, Jennifer
Paperback
$24.00
The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America's Soul
Kilmeade, Brian
Paperback
$17.10
Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens
Hippensteel, Scott
Hardcover
$37.95
Ulysses's Odyssey: Ulysses S. Grant's World Tour at the Dawn of American Empire
Picone, Louis L.
Hardcover
$33.20
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation
Parten, Bennett
Paperback
$18.05
How Lincoln Won: The 1860 Presidential Election and the Origins of the Civil War
DeWitt, Darin
Schwartz, Thomas
Hardcover
$63.00
Retreat from Victory: The Battle of Malvern Hill and the End of the Seven Days, July 1, 1862
O'Reilly, Francis Augustín
Hardcover
$37.95
The Surgeon's Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War
Privette, Lindsay Rae Smith
Paperback
$41.93
Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History
Huffman, Alan
Paperback
$17.99
Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era
Milteer, Warren Eugene, Jr.
Paperback
$39.13
No Common Ground, Second Edition: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice
Cox, Karen L.
Paperback
$17.10
Death or Victory: The Louisiana Native Guards and the Black Military's Significance in the Civil War
Cade, A. J.
Hardcover
$47.45
America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History
Bash, Dana
Paperback
$18.04
Managing the Union Army: Scott, McClellan, Halleck, and Grant as General-In-Chief
Hess, Earl J.
Hardcover
$56.95
Emancipation War: The Fall of Slavery and the Coming of the Thirteenth Amendment
Root, Damon
Hardcover
$28.45
The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
Delbanco, Andrew
Paperback
From $10.99