Customer Reviews

The Causes of the Civil War: Revised Edition (Touchstone)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is concise, and gives the causes of the Civil War. Stampp is a very well respected and well informed. Stampp gives the reader a quick yet through breakdown of the causes of the Civil War. I used this book as a source in writing a paper on the Causes of the Civil War (undergrad) and it was very helpful. This is useful for those interested in American History.

some drivel, some repetitive and others stunning with fresh insight. Impossible to characterize as biased because of the variety of sources. What is called the "American Civil War" is a complex event which is difficult to untangle from all that preceded or followed it. The self-rightousness, aggrandizing commercial motives of the North were often masked as moral crusades and the theme emerged time and time again as I read. I would have to add this as a "must read" for anyone who is serious about scholarship of the period.

This book is a seminal work for any student of the Civil War. It gives the opinions of those that actually lived through it, opinions from before, during, and after the war. These opinions are conflicting of course. For me it was not the type of book you can just sit down and read but rather a book to browse from time to time. An absolutely fascinating book.

I'm sort of surprised at the first two reviews. The first gentleman refers to the book as "drivel," even though Stampp used mostly primary sources. The second reviewer falls victim to the Neo-Confederate idea that slavery had nothing to do with the American Civil War--while clumsily avoiding the incredible mountain of primary sources that prove slavery WAS an issue. Stampp's book is a cornerstone of Civil War Historiography, and any serious student of the American Civil War would do well to read this excellent book. Don't be put off by the fact that The Causes of the Civil War was originally a textbook--it is both readable, and a quick read.

Sure, just another book that on one hand tells us that only a small minority of Quaker 'fanatics' were abolitionists, and that the war was over expansion and not slavery, and then the next minute have us all believe that Union troops faught and died to end slavery when in many of their hometowns there were laws that forbid blacks, Indians, and mulatooes from staying in town after sundown. If you believe that people died for this, then you need to be reading bedtime stories. The war was fought over MONEY, POWER, and caused by disagreement between Constitutional Federalists and Jeffersonians. Even the Supreme Court ruled that secession was allowed under the Constitution (in 1862 I believe), but in their ruling said basically that 'this is our ruling, but to no avail, because the issue is being decided on the battlefields as we speak'.