Causing the Civil War

Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975. This work by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Davis was originally printed in the 70s, yet it still stands as an important work on the history of slavery.

Davis, William. Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. This thick and highly researched biography of the Confederate President captures all of the quirks of his volcanic personality and shows his importance in the South as a politician, war hero and, later, first President of the Confederacy. Historian Davis devotes a considerable amount of time to the causes of the war, seen from both the northern and southern viewpoint.

Fehrenbacher, Don. Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford UP, 1982. This is a study of Lincoln's life in the decade preceding the war and the political and cultural storms that surrounded him.

Goodwin, Doris. Team of Rivals. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Goodwin's lengthy and carefully researched book tells the story of Lincoln's selection of his chief opponents for the Republican nomination as cabinet officers. The book concentrates on the war, but there are numerous chapters and parts of chapters on the causes of the war.

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. This Pulitzer Prize-winning work covers the history of the United States from the Mexican War through the end of the Civil War. Much of it is devoted to the causes of the war and the author shows, through significant research, how complicated they were. The book also probes the politics of the pre-war era and explains what effect Lincoln's election had on secession.

Richard, Leonard. The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2007. Richard's study zeroes in on gold mining as the main reason why a large group of people in California wanted slavery in the state. There were no plans for giant cotton production in the state, just an immediate need for enslaved miners who could help their owners turn a large profit. This desire nearly put California in the Democratic column in 1860's close election in that state.

Towers, Frank. The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, 2004. Towers chronicles the growth of cities in the South prior to the Civil War, noting their 62% jump in population, the arrival of street gangs, and manufacturing. Towers notes, too, that three of the largest eight cities in America were in slave states. He counters the argument that the South was an all-agrarian region.

White, Ronald. A. Lincoln. New York: Random House, 2009. White's detailed study of Lincoln shows him as the centerpiece of the pre-war era, but it also engages the reader in the different causes of the war. He also details the attack on Fort Sumter as a device to gain freedom for the South, not for cotton production.