Stampp asserts that three generic problems confronted the US in 1857, a crucial, even pivotal, year whose events would inextricably lead to civil strife. These problems included the traditional southern fear of slave insurrections; migrations of immigrants--particularly German and Irish Roman Catholics--during the 1850s: and the general increase in crime and disorder. Southerners were faced with fragmentation of the national Democratic party as evidenced by the demonstrated strength of the Republicans in the election of 1856. the author recounts decisive events such as the aftermath of the Sumner-Brooks imbroglio; the proslavery Lecompton constitution for Kansas versus the free-state Topeka constitution; the mixed (even compromised) signals created by President Buchanan when he undermined the activities of Robert J. Walker to offer all Kansas voters the right to ratify or reject the Lecompton constitution; and Senator Stephen A. Douglas's reaction that Buchanan's decision to uphold Lecompton spelled doom for "popular sovereignty." The nation also faced its third economic panic in 1857 when the Ohio Life Insurance Company, a bank of deposit, failed and sparked a financial recession. Proslavers rejoiced over the Dred Scott decision, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre created national distrust toward Mormons. These events created the necessary backlash that led to a Republican victory in 1860 and the death of the national Democratic party. With this book Stampp has crowned a superb career. Notes; photos. College, university, and public libraries. -J. D. Born Jr., Wichita State University

The history of our republic is, for the purposes of study, usually divided into two parts: pre- and post-Civil War. Eminent historian Stampp, in an expansive and diligent account, thus focuses on the year 1857 in a successful effort to capture a clear picture of pre-Civil War U.S. (specifically to delineate the causes and characteristics of the conflict between North and South, which had, at this point, grown to a level both virulent and irreversible). Stampp explains--in a narrative that isn't dense but certainly requires good background and an interest going beyond the casual--how the nation crossed the Rubicon in 1857. It was a year that saw the inauguration of the fifteenth president, James Buchanan, who, while insisting that he was bent on restoration of good will between North and South, was seen as less a participant in events than an observer; the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which said that residence for a time in a nonslave state or territory did not terminate a slave's condition of servitude; and horrible bloodletting in Kansas over the issue of a pro- or antislavery state constitution. A particularly enlightening book. Notes, bibliography; to be indexed. ~--Brad Hooper

1857 marked the climax of the pro-slavery South's political power; it was a year dominated by the issue of slavery in the Federal territories. In this scholarly study Stampp ( The Imperiled Union ) zeroes in on the Lecompton convention, during which a pro-slavery minority in the Kansas territory attempted to impose its will on the anti-slavery majority. When President James Buchanan, reneging on a campaign promise, endorsed the pro-slavery Lecompton constitution, an epic debate ensued in Congress, led by Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas. The pro-slavery move was defeated, but the resulting schism within the Democratic party opened the way for the presidential candidacy of Abraham Lincoln and the escalation of North-South tensions that led to civil war. Stampp also discusses other signal events of that dark year, including the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, the financial Panic of 1857 and the Mormon rebellion in Utah. His sweeping survey ably demonstrates how the growing tension between North and South reached ``the political point of no return.'' Photos. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Eminent historian Stampp ( The Peculiar Institution , Knopf 1956; The Imperiled Union , LJ 5/1/80) argues that 1857, not 1860, marked the political and emotional point of no return between North and South. Covering the economic depression (Northerners suffered, Southerners gloated), the Dred Scott decision, Kansas troubles, filibustering in Nicaragua, religious revivals, crime, land speculation, Mormons in Utah, and more, Stampp portrays a people so divided along class, ethno-religious, and sectional lines that one wonders what glue held the nation together. Stronger on politics than social history, and strained by a premise that makes events move lock-step toward secession, this book will not satisfy professional historians so much as it will engage and inform general readers, but Stampp forces all to rethink the chronology and dynamic of American unity and identity. Recommended for college libraries.-- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.