The Imperiled Union : Essays on the Background of the Civil War

Comments on the inevitability of the Civil War, the rise of the Republican Party, the will of the South to win, and the effect of slavery on the slave and slaveowner

A collection of essays by a master historian. Amongst the subjects that Stampp tackles are the inevitability of the Civil War and the truth about why the confederacy actually died. The other essays are a mix of historiography and analysis of issues including Lincoln's role in reinforcing Fort Sumter, the impact of psychology in trading slaves, and the role of racism in the Republican Party.

Stampp considers the American concept of a perpetual union, two historiographical controversies about the nature of slavery, the main elements of Republican Party thought in the antebellum period, and the causes of the Civil War