Perhaps the greatest lesson we could all learn is to never judge the past based on the present. Sectional Divisions that Led to the Civil War Governmental or Political Slavery & Abolitionism References The North was a manufacturing region, and its people favored tariffs that protected factory owners and workers from foreign competition. Refresh and try again. It's heavy. Luckily for us, February brings a... To see what your friends thought of this book, The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861, Even a Pulitzer Prize can date a little. I was told it was a fascinating course; I was skeptical, but it turned out to be true. His main achievement was to put the history of the South in national perspective. It's eminently readable for such a potentially dense subject and is probably still the book on this era. The Impending Crisis, 1848—1861.By David M. Potter. by Harper Perennial. It's eminently readable for such a potentially dense subject and is probably still the book on this era. Excellent job! The American historian David M. Potter (1910-1971) was trained as a Civil War historian, but earned his reputation for his book People of Plenty (1953), which was one of the significant texts of the era. by David Donald (New York: Collier Books, 1960), 109. Civil War: Explanatory Essays (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Born in Georgia, he graduated from the Academy of Richmond County, then from Emory University in 1932. It's been over thirty years and I can't tell you many details from it, but I recall it being an extraordinary good read as well as compelling narrative of the chain of events leading up to the secession crisis and Civil War, starting (mostly) with the end of the war with Mexico.No spoilers here; you'll have to read it to find out what happens to the U.S. in 1861. A clear, rich history of the lead-up to the Civil War. In 1942 Yale published his dissertation as Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis and hired him as an assistant professor. The book is part of the New American History series not the Oxford History series that I had been reading. Written in the early 70s by David Potter and published by his estate in 1976, it provides a solid history of the fight over slavery in the new territories, Dred Scott, the transformations of the Democratic and Republican parties, and Southern efforts that began it's move toward secession. Civil War History The magnum opus of a great American historian. It was written in the 1960s, so some of the theses younger historians have developed are not represented. Nonetheless, it threads the needle between the Mexican War that clearly escalated the slavery crisis through the Compromise of 1850 to the Kansas Nebraska Act to the declarations of succession. Is this rather dramatic conclusion We’d love your help. David M. Potter: A Brief Appreciation. Potter posthumously won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (1976), an in-depth narrative and analysis of the causes of the American Civil War. I was looking for a good overview of the period between James K. Polk's presidency and the beginning of the Civil War, and this was it. This text is relevant to today with the over-simplication of the divisions in the US in 2020. Dr. Potter does not let himself be lured into a simple and potentially newsworthy answer while providing a plainly stated and logical answer to that question early on. It is a political history of the country during that period; it doesn't cover social, cultural or economic developments except as they bear upon the subject matter. PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 18 (UPI)—David M. Potter, presi dent of the American Histori cal Association and an au thority on the. This is a good, but long and detailed, read if you want to understand how the different sides, and those in the middle, saw the issues as the country spiraled into war. David M. Potter’s 1942 study, Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis, examines the events of winter, 1860-1861 that led to the secession of the South and precipitated the Civil War. One major difference between Potter’s and Holts historical interpretations of the Civil War was that Potter believed that the cause of the war was due to and the agitation of sectional extremists for blowing inherently manageable problems out of proportion. The best history of the United States covering the period from the end of the war with Mexico in 1848 and the beginning of the Civil War. The book is part of the New American History series not the Oxford History series that I had been reading. Today Joseph Rizzo reviews David Potter’s classic, The Impending Crisis: 1848-1861. He speaks of the “bitter sectional conflicts” continued by the rivalries during the war, and that politics remained the same after the war. As professor of history at Yale University in 1942–1961 and Coe Professor of American History at Stanford University in 1961–1971 he directed numerous dissertations and served on numerous editorial and professional boards. Pp. It took me a long time to read because each page contains a wealth of information, and it's not something you can just breeze through if you're truly interested in the subject. I found it both brilliant and riveting. Bell Irvin Wiley. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession. He then walks through the events and personalities of the country in the period preceding the civil war, and illustrates how the underlying structural conflicts in the founding of the United States made some event such as the civil war almost inevitable. David M. Potter wrote The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861 with the exception of the last two chapters. This is just an excellent and highly readable account of the period leading up to the Civil War. And "The Impending Crisis" was one reason I ended up going to Graduate school in US History; it turned what one might have felt to be a boring topic into a fascinating read. It is an interesting book in that Lincoln plays so little a part in the story (as is correct), but also because Potter doesn't appear to be a big fan of Lincoln generally (he seems to dismiss Lincoln's. The standard book on the coming of the war is still David M. Potter, The Impending Cri sis: 1848-1861 (New York: Harper and Row, 1976). There are several rather dry chapters on the political compromises dealing with the creation of new territories and addition of new states to th. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Potter begins with the debate over the Wilmot Proviso and ends with the first shots at Fort Sumter, and clearly presents all of the economic, social and political aspects of the sectional conflict in between (with the most emphasis on the latter) All of Potter’s arguments are solidly backed up. (New York, 1973), 63-72; Henry Blumenlhal. If you want to read up on the causes of the Civil War, few books do it better. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession. Well worthy of the Pulitzer Prize when it was awarded in 1977. It would be too much to say this book apologizes for the South, but in (otherwise appropriately) correcting the dominant narrative about the beneficence of the North, the narrative misses the day to day life in the South that informed the ‘Great Man’ politics in which this book relies. The secession of the South was about far more than the issue of slavery. There are several rather dry chapters on the political compromises dealing with the creation of new territories and addition of new states to the Union, the politicians attempting to avoid dealing with the issue of slavery. (Is this 2019 investigation the Dred Scott decision of our times? This historic account of the state of the Union in the years prior to the Civil War focuses primarily on the slavery question--how matters were compromised and how the compromises broke down. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. This book is an extremely political take on the events leading up to the first shots of the Civil War starting with President Polk's all too successful imperialist grab for Mexican land in 1846-1847. I appreciated Potter's perspective on multiple facets of the South vs Abolitionist dynamic of Pre-Civil War America. While in graduate school at Yale University he worked with Ulrich B. Phillips, the foremost historian of the South. Born in Georgia, he graduated from the Academy of Richmond County, then from Emory University in 1932. Historians He also characterizes (and humanizes) flawed and historically wrong figures like Chief Justice Taney beyond the simple evil representation of most texts because of the Dredd Scott case, Or, Buchanan as one of the most qualified presidents elected solely as a compromise candidate, but whose ve. David M. Potter. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern succession. "David M. Potter's magisterial The Impending Crisis is the single best account to date of the coming of the Civil War." It's interesting to see this nation full of people who "speak the same language, but don't understand each, I would not recommend this book for people passively interested in antebellum America. He considered himself a conservative and was a prominent exponent of Consensus history. "But how did we get here?" He wrote extensively on the American society, the American character, and historiography. This is an outstanding history of the 13 years leading to the American Civil War. The treaty resolving the war ironically unleashed latent sectional tension regarding how to govern the newly squired Mexican territory, which sent the United States on an arduous journey down a path that ended in Civil War. In The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861, historian David M. Potter synthesizes key events leading to the American Civil War. Potter entered graduate school at Yale the same year, but he left four years later without finishing his dissertation. At Yale he worked with Ulrich Bonnell Phillips.His earned his Ph.D. in 1940 and published Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis in 1942. It's heavy. Brilliant, subtle, scholarly, an extraordinary work of history. Nevertheless, David Potter has produced a volume that stands atop all that has come before it and continues to hold incredible relevance to the present day. Start by marking “The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861” as Want to Read: Error rating book. In fact, one of the most revealing aspects of the book was the inclusion of excerpts from the Congressional Globe, which was the predecessor to the current Congressional Record. the impending crisis: america before the civil war, david m. potter. There are too many ways in which the polarization of the country in the 1850s have distressing parallels today, but these only add to the strong interest of this book. I've been reading about the Civil War for almost 60 years now but have always been neglectful of material dealing with the 1850s. David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. This is an outstanding history of the build-up to the American Civil War. Southerners opposed tariffs that Be the first to ask a question about The Impending Crisis, I read this as an assigned book for an undergraduate American History course on "The Coming of the Civil War" in 1987. Deep dive into antebellum politics. I've read enough books about this Civil War at this point (both from the perspective of Northern and Southern historians) that to me there's no mistaking why that war was started - the disgraceful "peculiar institution", slavery. Harry S. Stout. Written in the early 70s by David Potter and published by his estate in 1976, it provides a solid history of the fight over slavery in the new territories, Dred Scott, the transformations of the Democratic and Republican parties, and Southern efforts that began it's move toward secession. It is however a magnificent work that captures the over a decade period that was leading up to the Civil War. By Daniel W. Crofts, Professor of History at The College of New Jersey and author of several books about antebellum politics.. David M. Potter spent his career studying the watershed juncture in American history—runaway North-South sectionalism in the mid-nineteenth century, Southern secession, and the outbreak of war. Great book though probably not as "modern" as academic concerns currently are preoccupied with. This historic account of the state of the Union in the years prior to the Civil War focuses primarily on the slavery question--how matters were compromised and how the compromises broke down. David Morris Potter (December 6, 1910 in Augusta, Georgia – February 18, 1971) was an American historian of the South. I found the later chapters on the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the John Brown fiasco at Harper's Ferry to be especially fascinating, making up for slogging through the political debates! It's so political in its focus that it mentions slaves as actual people barely at all and, rather, focuses on political events related to slavery in the abstract almost every time it can (everything surrounding the admission of Kansas as a territory, Dred Scott, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and so on). Historians of the sectional conflict, like their colleagues in other fields, have consciously expanded the geographic and chronological confines of their research. Porter explores the complicated relationship between slavery and the Constitution where other authors would simply call it a slave document or a sealed piece of perfection. He attempts, and mostly succeeds, in refraining from making moralistic judgements on those that supported the slave system. This volume cured that! Porter explores the complicated relationship between slavery and the Constitution where other authors would simply call it a slave document or a sealed piece of perfection. He also characterizes (and humanizes) flawed and historically wrong figures like Chief Justice Taney beyond the simple evil representation of most texts because of the Dredd Scott case, Or, Buchanan as one of the most qualified presidents elected solely as a compromise candidate, but whose very existence as president was doomed to fail because of his one-track mind towards party loyalty. In fact, even the issue of slavery was about more than slavery. That said, it's an interesting dive into pre-Civil War America. Even a Pulitzer Prize can date a little. He wrote extensively on the American society, the American character, and historiography. *sigh*. Highly recommend this book for the history buff who wants to learn the many facets of the events leading up to succession of the lower south and the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Unlike most books, it took me months to read this one, I kept finding reasons to put off reading it. David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. v How Lincoln Won the War with Metaphors In an essay on the reasons for Confederate defeat in the Civil War, southern historian David M. Potter made a strik-ing assertion: "If the Union and Confederacy had exchanged presidents with one another, the Confederacy might have won its independence." Ironically on the causes of the war itself, the most important works are quite traditional in both content and interpretation. 1392 The Impending Crisis 1848-1861, by David M. Potter Completed by Don E. Fehrenbacher (read 15 May 1976) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer History prize in 1977) I really doubt that I will read many more interesting books than this was. Welcome back. Upon his death in 1971, his colleague Don E. Fehrenbacher completed and edited the book. It actually took me a minute to catch on because when reading about the past one comes about the word Negro quite a bit, normally I just view the term in its historic lens, but as I read further the term was used quite generally referring to 'the Negro population' and to Fredrick Douglass as a 'leading Negro thinker' even when not talking from a historical perspective. ), Overall an engrossing and thorough review of the conditions and issues which led up to the U.S. Civil War. History is complicated and David Porter gets that. It's been over thirty years and I can't tell you many details from it, but I recall it being an extraordinary good read. Extremely dense yet well-written. That said, it's an interesting dive into pre-Civil War America. David M. Potter edit data Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name David^M.^^Potter for works by the American Pulitzer Prize historian, see David Morris Potter The writing was OK but not excellent. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1942. And "The Impending Crisis" was one reason I ended up going to Graduate school in US History; it turned what one might have felt to be a boring topic into a fascinating read. Read other reviews in the series. David Potter died before this book was published so all the success and praise, including a Pulitzer Prize, could only be received posthumously. David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Unfortunately, we cannot travel back in time to share their experiences, so perhaps it's best that we keep our judgmental mouths shut and try to learn from history instead of repeating it. The focus is heavily on the political maneuvering on the part of congress and presidents, but social-cultural factors are attended to as well. This is an amazing book. Here is the second post in the ongoing series on Civil War classics written by students in Prof. Peter Carmichael’s graduate seminar. Maybe? Temperley, Howard. I would recommend among the books to read about this era. It was written in the 1960s, so some of the theses younger historians have developed are not represented. It's interesting to see this nation full of people who "speak the same language, but don't understand each other" focus inward on their selfishness, and turn towards their perceived area and political party "needs" instead of advancing the nation in the right direction. I've been reading about the Civil War for almost 60 years now but have always been neglectful of material dealing with the 1850s. It took me a long time to read because each page contains a wealth of information, and it's not something you can just breeze through if you're truly interested in the subject. He taught at the University of Mississippi for two years, then taught at Rice University for another two before completing his dissertation in 1940 under Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. ", Collins, Robert M. "David Potter's People of Plenty and the Recycling of Consensus History,", Johannsen, Robert W. "David Potter, Historian and Social Critic: a Review Essay.". UPON THE ALTAR OF THE NATION: A Moral History of the Civil War, 2007 . Potter does a great job of presenting the situation as it happened in the US. He was born in Augusta, Georgia, and graduated from Emory University in 1932. The treaty resolving the war ironically unleashed latent sectional tension regarding h. Even as early as the 1960s, the field of literature on the origins of the Civil War was crowded. "Confederate Diplomacy: Popular Notions and International Years ago I cracked open a very thick book about the Civil War and found myself perplexed when it just jumped in right at the beginning of the fighting. It has great currency with our time and its divisions. (With Curtis R. Grant) Eight Issues in American History: Views and Counterviews, Scott, Foresman, 1966. Well worth reading, but not the entire story of the period. Completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. If you can read only one book: Dirck, Brian R. Lincoln and Davis: Imagining America, 1809-1865. Extremely dense yet well-written. Potter held the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University in 1947. Harper & Row. [3], Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History, http://biography.yourdictionary.com/david-m-potter, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_M._Potter&oldid=992759313, Presidents of the American Historical Association, Stanford University Department of History faculty, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, His most important book, finished and edited by, "American Women and the American Character" in. This is a topic that is discussed a lot, and for which there are a lot of opinions. Dr. Potter does not let himself be lured into a simple and potentially newsworthy answer while providing a plainly stated and logical answer to that question early on. The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 is a 1976 nonfiction book by American historian David M. Potter, who had died in 1971.The book was completed by fellow Stanford University professor Don E. Fehrenbacher and published in 1977 by Harper & Row.It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History.. References a. David M. Potter and Michael F. Holt both had different ideas on what had caused the uprising of the Civil war. Unlike the Oxford History volumes, it does not dive as deep into the average people as well as the elites with the same amount of elegant. By David M. Potter. One major difference between Potter’s and Holt’s historical interpretations of Civil War is that throughout David M. Potter’s writing he emphasizes his negative view towards the war. At the end, I truly felt as if I had come to a much better understanding of how it all erupted into a civil war. If you want to read up on the causes of the Civil War, few books. I read this as an assigned book for an undergraduate American History course on "The Coming of the Civil War" in 1987. I would not recommend this book for people passively interested in antebellum America. "David M. Potter", in Robert Allen Rutland, ed., This page was last edited on 6 December 2020, at 23:11. When I found an old copy of David Potter's, I finished this amazing book minutes after the announcement of the completion of the Mueller report. Just as that old proverb says: Never judge a person until you have walked a mile in his shoes. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877, Readers' Most Anticipated Books of February. In it, the words of Southern congressmen clearly articulate their pro-slavery views and their use of slavery as the primary cause of eventual Southern secession. He rejected the conflict model of Charles A. It is an interesting book in that Lincoln plays so little a part in the story (as is correct), but also because Potter doesn't appear to be a big fan of Lincoln generally (he seems to dismiss Lincoln's role in the 1858 senatorial debates as not that important. The American historian David M. Potter was trained as a Civil War historian, but earned his reputation for his book People of Plenty (1953), which was one of the significant texts of the era. It's time to get in that last stretch of winter reading and prepare our Want to Read shelves for spring. David Morris Potter (December 6, 1910 in Augusta, Georgia – February 18, 1971) was an American historian of the South. He wrote extensively on the American society, the … P rofessional historians, to varying degrees, believe that slavery was elemental to the coming of the Civil War. The North and the South forgot how to talk to one another. Its sometimes contrarian assertions are well supported, but it nevertheless suffers when it tries to be too objective regarding the white Southern perspective. I would love to give Potter’s book more than 3 stars, but this was a book that I struggled to read despite enjoying it. Nevertheless, David Potter has produced a volume that stands atop all that has come before it and continues to hold incredible relevance to the present day. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. He then walks through the events and personalities of the country in the period preceding the civil war, and illustrates how the underlying s. Overall an engrossing and thorough review of the conditions and issues which led up to the U.S. Civil War. I've read enough books about this Civil War at this point (both from the perspective of Northern and Southern historians) that to me there's no mistaking why that war was started - the disgraceful "peculiar institution", slavery. David M. Potter s magisterial The Impending Crisis is the single best account to date of the coming of the Civil War. Through a detailed political analysis, Potter traces how the United States stood united in nationalistic fervor in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War.