The Fate of Their Country

"Holt's fascinating study of partisan politics and the territorial slavery issue shows again why he is one of America's finest pre-civil war historians." —William W. Freehling, author of  The Road to Disunion  What brought about the Civil War? Leading historian Michael F. Holt convincingly offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. In this brilliant and succinct book, Holt distills a lifetime of scholarship to demonstrate that secession and war did not arise from two irreconcilable economies any more than from moral objections to slavery. Short-sighted politicians were to blame. Rarely looking beyond the next election, the two dominant political parties used the emotionally charged and largely chimerical issue of slavery's extension westward to pursue reelection and settle political scores, all the while inexorably dragging the nation towards disunion. Despite the majority opinion (held in both the North and South) that slavery could never flourish in the areas that sparked the most contention from 1845 to 1861—the Mexican Cession, Oregon, and Kansas—politicians in Washington, especially members of Congress, realized the partisan value of the issue and acted on short-term political calculations with minimal regard for sectional comity. War was the result. Including select speeches by Lincoln and others,  The Fate of Their Country openly challenges us to rethink a seminal moment in America's history. "There is no better introduction to the intricate yet explosive politics of the 1850s." —Harry L. Watson, author of  Building the American Republic "Michael Holt has written a superb account of the nation's decent into Civil War." —Joel H. Silbey, author of  Storm Over Texas