{"product_id":"the-road-to-disunion-volume-ii-secessionists-triumphant-18541861-9780195058154","title":"The Road to Disunion  Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere is history in the grand manner  a powerful narrative peopled with dozens of memorable portraits  telling this important story with skill and relish. Freehling highlights all the key moments on the road to war  including the violence in Bleeding Kansas  Preston Brookss beating of Charles Sumner in the Senate chambers  the Dred Scott Decision  John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry  and much more. As Freehling shows  the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked a political crisis  but at first most Southerners took a cautious approach  willing to wait and see what Lincoln would do--especially  whether he would take any antagonistic measures against the South. But at this moment  the extreme fringe in the South took charge  first in South Carolina and Mississippi  but then throughout the lower South  sounding the drum roll for secession. Indeed  The Road to Disunion is the first book to fully document how this decided minority of Southern hotspurs took hold of the secessionist issue and  aided by a series of fortuitous events  drove the South out of the Union. Freehling provides compelling profiles of the leaders of this movement--many of them members of the South Carolina elite. Throughout the narrative  he evokes a world of fascinating characters and places as he captures the drama of one of Americas most important--and least understood--stories. The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning Secessionists at Bay  which was hailed as \"the most important history of the Old South ever published \" this volume concludes a major contribution to our understanding of the Civil War. A compelling  vivid portrait of the final years of the antebellum South  The Road to Disunion will stand as an important history of its subject.  \"This sure-to-be-lasting work--studded with pen portraits and consistently astute in its appraisal of the subtle cultural and geographic variations in the region--adds crucial layers to scholarship on the origins of Americas bloodiest conflict.\" --The Atlantic Monthly  \"Splendid  painstaking account...and so a work of history reaches into the past to illuminate the present. It is light we need  and we owe Freehling a debt for shedding it.\" --Washington Post  \"A masterful  dramatic  breathtakingly detailed narrative.\" --The Baltimore Sun\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647888941109,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195058151","price":24.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195058154.jpg?v=1781698978","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-road-to-disunion-volume-ii-secessionists-triumphant-18541861-9780195058154","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}