Tracing the sectionalization of American politics in the 1840s and 1850s; Michael Morrison offers a comprehensive study of how slavery and territorial expansion intersected as causes of the Civil War. Specifically; he argues that the common heritage of the American Revolution bound Americans together until disputes over the extension of slavery into the territories led northerners and southerners to increasingly divergent understandings of the Revolution's legacy. Manifest Destiny promised the literal enlargement of freedom through the extension of American institutions all the way to the Pacific. At each step--from John Tyler's attempt to annex Texas in 1844; to the Kansas-Nebraska Act; to the opening shots of the Civil War--the issue of slavery had to be confronted. Morrison shows that the Revolution was the common prism through which northerners and southerners viewed these events and that the factor that ultimately made consensus impossible was slavery itself. By 1861; no nationally accepted solution to the dilemma of slavery in the territories had emerged; no political party existed as a national entity; and politicians from both North and South had come to believe that those on the other side had subverted the American political tradition.
#558810 in Books Edmund S Morgan 1995-03-20Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .77 x 5.98l; 1.10 #File Name: 0807845132342 pagesThe Stamp Act Crisis Prologue to Revolution
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Though it is more than a half century since Morgan's ...By JBoswell1740Though it is more than a half century since Morgan's book first appeared; it remains a nonpareil account of the Stamp Act and its impact on both American and England. Written with uncommon clarity and accessibility even for laymen; it offers a comprehensively detailed but never fussy history of the reasons why the act was imposed on the colonies; how Americans reacted to it; and how the resulting turmoil laid the groundwork for the outbreak of the Revolutionary War a decade later. Briefly; the Grenville administration sought to affirm the authority of Parliament to tax the colonists through the duties on documents; while Americans challenged the right of taxation by a legislative body in which hey were not represented. After a series of violent protests largely arising in New England; Parliament repealed the tax; though that action did not settle the issues raised during the debate on both sides of the Atlantic. As Morgan writes; the matter of the "authority of Parliament" against "the rights of Englishmen" was a complex one that would ultimately lead to war. Despite its age; there is no more perceptive; vital account of the stamp act controversy. Also worth reading: Bernard Bailyn's knowledgeable biography of Thomas Hutchinson; the tragic colonial governor of Massachusetts whose fate was tied closely to the act.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Fischer and reads like a storyBy Sherie Ann PetersonThe author's other book The Prologue to a Revolution: The Stamp Act Crisis is a listed on the syllabus by David Hackett Fischer. This book is similar to the books by Prof. Fischer and reads like a story. I am using it as a resource for my website PatriotsAndRedcoats.Com.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Classic colonial American history.By MaxwellNow if we could only have a Kindle edition of the volume of primary sources that accompanied this work when it was first published.
