Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859
by Elizabeth R. Varon
147 Members (4.00)
On This Page
Description
In the decades of the early republic, Americans debating the fate of slavery often invoked the specter of disunion to frighten their opponents. As Elizabeth Varon shows, ""disunion"" connoted the dissolution of the republic--the failure of the founders' effort to establish a stable and lasting representative government. For many Americans in both the North and the South, disunion was a nightmare, a cataclysm that would plunge the nation into the kind of fear and misery that seemed to pervade show more the rest of the world. For many others, however, disunion was seen as the main instrument by which they show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
r/AskHistorians' Recommended Books
1,068 works; 19 members
Tagged Civil War
16 works; 4 members
Female Author
1,234 works; 65 members
Author Information

5 Works 534 Members
Elizabeth R. Varon is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859; We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia; and Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent in the show more Heart of the Confederacy. show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859
- Original publication date
- 2008
- People/Characters
- John Quincy Adams; James Buchanan; John C. Calhoun; Henry Clay; Stephen A. Douglas; Frederick Douglass (show all 14); William W. Freehling; William Lloyd Garrison; James Henry Hammond; Abraham Lincoln; Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr.; William Henry Seward; Martin van Buren; Daniel Webster
- Publisher's editor
- Gallagher, Gary W.; Parrish, T. Michael
- Blurbers
- Ayers, Edward L.; McPherson, James M.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 147
- Popularity
- 223,638
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 4





























































