{"product_id":"seeding-civil-war-kansas-in-the-national-news-18541858-9780700616121","title":"Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News  1854-1858","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act  Kansas Territory was a national issue that dominated Americas press  not to mention three sessions of Congress. Hundreds of thousands of articles and editorials4 500 in the New York Herald alonewere published about Bleeding Kansas during those four tumultuous years leading up to the Lecompton Constitution. Craig Miner now offers the first in-depth study of national media coverage devoted to the beleaguered territory  unearthing new examples of what Americans were saying about Kansas and showing how those words affected the course of national events.  Miner draws on dozens of newspapers and magazines from all parts of the country and of all political persuasions: a trove of rich quotations and unvarnished epithets  nearly all of them published here for the first time. He reveals how the heated  polarizing rhetoric widened the sectional rift  weakened chances of accommodation  and contributed more to the onset of civil war than has been previously recognized.  Miner shows what a tremendous obsession Kansas was for the nation-a whipping boy for sectional and political emotions-and how thoroughly it dominated the press in cities large and small  North and South. He argues convincingly that the endless  seemingly fruitless debate was important more because of the way events were discussed than because of the significance of the events themselves and that it contributed to the cynicism that made war inevitable-for some  even desirable. Along the way  he addresses such topics as the vagaries of voting as a democratic solution to moral divisions  the Kansas issue as a religious debate  the media creation of martyrs  and Kansas governors as examples of leadership  for good or ill.  After reading Seeding Civil War  Kansans will never be able to regard Lawrence and Lecompton the same way again  while national readers will gain surprising insights about their own towns during this critical timeand experience firsthand the unfolding of a national disaster.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45953316913205,"sku":"ByrdShop_0700616128","price":38.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780700616121.jpg?v=1788185001","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/seeding-civil-war-kansas-in-the-national-news-18541858-9780700616121","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}