Clash of Extremes

This provocative Civil War history offers "perceptive, fine-grained analysis" to show that the conflict was rooted in economics—not moral principles ( Publishers Weekly ). Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, historian Marc Egnal demonstrates that between 1820 and 1850, patterns of trade and production drew the North and South together and allowed sectional leaders to broker a series of compromises. After midcentury, however, all that changed as the rise of the Great Lakes economy reoriented Northern trade along east-west lines.  Meanwhile, in the South, soil exhaustion, concerns about the country's westward expansion, and growing ties between the Upper South and the free states led many cotton planters to contemplate secession. The war that ensued was truly a "clash of extremes." Sweeping from the 1820s through Reconstruction and filled with colorful portraits of key personalities, Clash of Extremes emphasizes economics while giving careful consideration to social conflicts, ideology, and the rise of the antislavery movement. The result is a bold reinterpretation that challenges the reigning orthodoxy about the Civil War.