Research Catalog

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

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

Subjects

• United States
• Geschichte 1857
• 1857-1861
• History
• University of South Alabama
• United States > Politics and government > 1857-1861
• USA
• Politik
• Politics and government

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