In order to understand the crucial years between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, years in which the character and future course of the American republic were largely created and charted, there are three superb books whose breadth and depth make them required reading:
The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
by Sean Wilentz,
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford History of the United States)
by Gordon S. Wood and The Impending Crisis, America Before the Civil War 1848-1861. The years between the two wars featured immense growth in the size of the new nation, essentially filling the continent and fulfilling manifest destiny. America was now a shining new land bordered by two oceans, an island of spectacular size whose geographic isolation helped it to give birth to a new form of democracy, free from the fear of invasion. The spectacular growth in size functioned as a powerful attraction to landless immigrants. The American form of republican democracy, always a work-in-progress, now contended with an increasingly diverse population whose experience in their new country was like a political laboratory in which the nature of freedom was held up for study
Reading all three books offer the reader a firm background in the nature of the events of the era and will provide a true, in-depth understanding of their significance. Where David M. Potter's book really shines is in its tight focus on the critical years of 1848-1861. These were years in which the Mexican War provided America with its southwest. When the dust had cleared and hostilities had ceased, Mexico had lost about one-third of its territory, including nearly all of the present-day states of California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
The 1857 Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court held that blacks, whether now enslaved or free, and whose ancestors were imported into the U.S .and were sold as slaves, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court. The ruling essentially said that slaves were not people, but (valuable) property. Abolitionist John Brown resorted to violence in reaction to that ruling and to others. Especially significant was the rise of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and his willingness to address the slavery issue head-on by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
The Impending Crisis, with its keen focus on the final strife-ridden 13 years, is an especially fine introduction to the Civil War. The cascading calamities that led to war are the source of this book's superb narrative. If you are looking for an exceptional analysis of the Civil War's genesis. The Impending Crisis is one of the finest available. If you wish to place these final years in context, then read all three books for a superlative overview of events. The Impending Crisis 1848-1861 is a true classic of historical writing.
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