Political Crisis of the 1850s (edition 1983)

My review is available at http://elektratig.blogspot.com/2009/07/road-to-road-to-gettysburg-10-favorite.ht... ( )

As I have read Holt's magisterial history of the Whig Party I probably did not need to read this book. His thesis is that slavery was not in the 1850s an all connsuming issue, but he concludes nevertheless that it was the issue which most probably caused the Civil War--which I have always thought was obvious. Holt relates the political events of the years from 1848 through early 1861 with thoroughness, but I did not think his account was very lively, and I had trouble staying interested. He says David Potter's The Impending Crisis is an indispensable book for this period in American history, and I was thoroughly enamored of that book when I read it back in 1976. So if you haave not read it, you would be well advised to read it rather than this quite dry book ( )