Approaching Civil War and Southern History

by William J. Cooper

200 Pages / 5.50 x 85.00 x 0.50 in

Hardcover

9780807170588

Published: February 2019

$40.00

BUY

eBook

9780807170977

Published: February 2019

(Requires the Leaf e-Reader app)

$40.00

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise
Press Kit

Initially published between 1970 and 2012, the essays in Approaching Civil War and Southern History span almost the entirety of William J. Cooper’s illustrious scholarly career and range widely across a broad spectrum of subjects in Civil War and southern history. Together, they illustrate the broad scope of Cooper’s work. While many essays deal with his well-known interests, such as Jefferson Davis or the secession crisis, others are on lesser-known subjects, such as Civil War artist Edwin Forbes and the writer Daniel R. Hundley. In the new introduction to each chapter, Cooper notes the essay’s origins and purpose, explaining how it fits into his overarching interest in the nineteenth-century political history of the South. Combined and reprinted here for the first time, the ten essays in Approaching Civil War and Southern History reveal why Cooper is recognized today as one of the most influential historians of our time.

1. A Reassessment of Jefferson Davis as War Leader: The Case from Atlanta to Nashville
2. Economics or Race: An Analysis of the Gubernatorial Election of 1890 in South Carolina
3. The Cotton Crisis in the Antebellum South: Another Look
4. Daniel R. Hundley, Interpreter of the Antebellum South
5. The Politics of Slavery Affirmed: The South and the Secession Crisis
6. “The Only Door”: The Territorial Issue, the Preston Bill, and the Southern Whigs
7. Edwin Forbes and the Civil War
8. Jefferson Davis Confronts a Changed World
9. The Critical Signpost on the Journey toward Secession
10. Where Was Henry Clay? President-Elect Abraham Lincoln and the Crisis of the Union, 1860–1861

William J. Cooper is the author of Jefferson Davis, American, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as numerous other books, including The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics. He is Boyd Professor of History Emeritus at Louisiana State University.

“These stimulating essays demonstrate why William J. Cooper has earned a reputation as one of the foremost historians of the South, slavery, and secession. In lucid, forthright prose he dissects several existing interpretations of these complex matters and offers bold, clear elucidations of his own.” ~James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

“This splendid collection of essays, the capstone of William J. Cooper’s prolific writing career, displays his many strengths as an historian: versatility in selection of topic, vigorous prose, rigorous research, and cogent argumentation. Thus its publication by Louisiana State University Press is a happy event indeed.” ~Michael Holt, author of The Election of 1860: A Campaign Fraught with Consequences

“These wide-ranging essays, published over a forty-two-year period, provide a taste of William J. Cooper’s important scholarship. Clearly written, thoughtful, and accessible, they put forth compelling analyses of major interpretive issues in the political history of the Civil War era.” ~Peter Kolchin, author of American Slavery, 1619–1877

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