Lincoln and the Democrats: The Politics of Opposition in the Civil War (incomplete)

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War explores the surprising crucial political history of the Northern war effort. It describes the vexatious behavior of a two-party system in war and points to the sound parts of the American system which proved to be the country's salvation: local civic pride, for example, and quiet nonpartisanship in mobilization and funding for the war. While revealing that the role of a noxious 'white supremacy' in the American politics of the period has been exaggerated - as has the power of the Copperheads - Neely revives the claim that the Civil War put the country on the road to 'human rights', and also reveals a previously unnoticed tendency toward deceptive and impractical grandstanding on the Constitution during war in the United States. "Lincoln and the Democrats describes the vexatious behavior of a two-party system in war and points to the sound parts of the American system which proved to be the country's salvation: local civic pride, and quiet nonpartisanship in mobilization and funding for the war, for example. While revealing that the role of a noxious 'white supremacy' in American politics of the period has been exaggerated - as has the power of the Copperheads - Neely revives the claim that the Civil War put the country on the road to 'human rights', and also uncovers a previously unnoticed tendency toward deceptive and impractical grandstanding on the Constitution during war in the United States."--Publisher's description