Customer Reviews

And the War Came (Louisiana Paperbacks, L53)

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Stampp presents an even-handed and readable narrative of the events in the North that led up to the Civil War: while not "pro-South," he makes clear that there were a number of motives on the Northern side, quite aside from any antipathy towards slavery, which caused the North to push the nation into war. Among the interesting tidbits in the book is an explanation of why the issue of slavery's expansion into the territories was so hot even though the remaining territories were clearly inhospitable to slavery (answer: both North and South viewed it as America's Manifest Destiny to continue expanding southward into Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean), and the curious story of how Major Anderson, the North's "hero" of Fort Sumter was actually pro-secession and tried heroically to avoid Sumter's becoming the spark that ignited Civil War. It is interesting to compare Stampp's book to Charles Adams' recent When In the Course of Human Events; also worth perusing is Jeff Hummel's Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men.

In a word, superb. In two words, a classic. Stampp's look into the North in the year preceding the Civil War is simply the best I've ever read. Detailed yet captivating, this well written work looks into the hearts and minds of one-half of a nation on the brink of civil war. Those of you whose Civil War research has extended little beyond Thomas DiLorenzo and the South-was-right crowd should read Stampp's book to learn how a real historian works. He never espouses a point of view and does not judge the actions of those who lived a century and a half ago from the political and philosophical basis of modern society.