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America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink

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Kenneth Stampp, one of the country's most distinguished historians, focuses on the pivotal year of 1857. The new president comes into office as a reconciliation Democrat, pledged to unite the country, with his party in firm control of Congress. Many predict that the new Republican Party will wither away in the calmer times ahead. Instead of that, events in Kansas, the Dredd Scott case, the panic of 1857, and struggle within the Democratic Party between Northerners, Unionists and Fire Eaters (proto-Secessionists) wreck the party and leave the Republicans with a clear road to the White House. The President's rigid response and limited point of view leave his party in ruins. The future seems to belong to the radical Republicans and the Disunionist South.

The book is quite well written, and flows like a suspense novel, even though you know how it will end. I read most of "1857" in one sitting, eager to see what would happen next. "Nation on the Brink" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the year which it appeared,but lost out in a very strong field.

Another reviewer complained that Stampp centered his argument on 1857 and neglected things which came before. That is the focus of the book, which is not an introduction to U.S. history. I don't believe that too much background is required, but David Potter's "Impending Crisis" is a good book if you want to study the 15 years before the war, and would provide a good companion to "Nation on the Brink".

Finally, it should be noted that Stampp is reluctant to draw conclusions, spending most of his time reporting the events of the year-- perfect for people who know a little about the era.

This book has a lot to tell people even if they think they know all about the Civil War. It covers the year 1857 and Mr. Stampp makes a persuasive case that this year was the year that made the Civil War inevitable.

Bad Presidents often get stigmatized with the reputation that they were merely ineffectual. Often, this allows the really bad Presidents from getting off the hook for active wrongdoing. Herbert Hoover for instance is hardly known for instituting the first Presidential break-in of political enemies which became common practice among almost all of his successors until Richard Nixon was caught. And people remember Bill Clinton for Monica Lewinsky, not for being the first President to receive bribes from Red China. So it is with James Buchanan, whose intervention in the Kansas controversy was so outrageous that he brought about the collapse of the Democratic Party and the dissolution of the Union. Stampp also makes it clear why Stephen A. Douglas deserves his reputation as a great man.

Stampp gives you a flavor of the year, so much that you almost feel that you are there. I would have preferred more cultural news - what the people were reading, what was playing in the theaters - but there is no reason for complaining about a book which didn't get written. As it stands, this is a splendid acheivement.

The author concentrates on events in the year 1857 to illustrate how America got from there to the Civil war. Featuring such landmark events as the Dred Scott decision of the supreme court, the ineptness of the Buchanan administration, and the financial panic, Stampp attempts to show how this year was a turning point in our history. The problem is that he attempts to do so in a vacuum, ignoring events that went before and after, so that the view is somewhat distorted. All the same, it shows many events that are unfamiliar to the reader and enlightens on how we entered, and could have avoided, a major internal conflict only four years later.

The book by Stampp is a very good look into the events prior to the Civil War. The year 1857 was frought with issues and factors which would lead to the spark for the Civil War. Stampp investigates the issues of the year very thoroughly.

Stampp is one of the best Civil War historians, and this book will get you good insight to Pre-Civil War United States. This book is priced reasonably and holds a good amount of information. The detailed attack and the aftermath in the Senate is included, and provides an example of the hostility that was brewing in 1857.

America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink by Kenneth M. Stampp is a work on how the nation was in 1857, a pivotal year, where sectional conflict spun out of control. The Civil War is just four years in the distance and the mood of the nation is of unrest and there are forces that are plummeting the nation toward disaster.

James Buchanan, the President at the time, throws his support on the wrong side of the Kansas Statehood issue, in New York City there are bank closures, unemployment starts to skyrocket, and the Supreme Court, in a fit of judicial activism, hands down the Dred Scott decision. We see the proslavery and antislavery groups taking a more serious attempt to win favor with the Congress. The Mormon Utah Teritory can't have Brigham Young as their governor.

All this turmoil splits the Democratic party in two. Stephen Douglas splits the party against James Buchanan, repudiating and humiliating the president, which further devastated the Democrats, forcing the Untied States closer to the Civil War. This book is interesting and told with a flowing and well documented prose that is narrated with clarity.

I found that once you start the book, the author takes you to this unsettling year and makes you believe that you are actually there. With political frauds and urban gangs making the experience real, the author brings us to a time, in the nation's history, where William Walker can conquer Nicaragua and make in a slave state. This book opens ones eyes to the era where crime and corruption were attempting to take the country and rebellion wasn't far behind.

This is a good read to the prelude of events leading upto one of the Civil War and we get to see the country's mindset, something very hard to project, but the author seems to convey it quite well.