The Political Crisis of the 1850s

About this book

Holt sees the Civil War as representing a breakdown in Americas democratic political process more specifically the Second Party System of Whigs and Democrats. He demonstrates this systems success beginning in the 1820s and 1830s in confining sectional disputes safely within the political arena. With the breakdown of vital two-party competition in the 1850s sectional issues increasingly took on ideological dimension causing Americans North and South to see in them dangerous threats to cherished republican institutions. No longer manageable within the arena of politics sectional differences had to be resolved with in the arena of battle.The Political Crisis of the 1850s