The Idea of a Southern Nation: Southern Nationalists and Southern Nationalism 1830-1860

About this book

But a series of shockssocial economic intellectual and finally politicalgave an increasingly distinctive twist to the ideology of nationalism that developed in the South. By 1860 through agreeing with the North over constitutional fundamentals and sharing with other Americans similar hopes and fears many Southerners had concluded that only in a separate Southern nation could their rights and security be preserved. This book is a study of how and why the ideology of Southern nationalism arose and spread. It attempts to explain within the framework of an evolving national character how Northern and Southern versions of American nationalism both of which professed allegiance to the Constitution led to civil war.