Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Chronology
  • Cast of characters: the men of secession and the war
  • Prelude to disunion
  • John Brown, Salmon Chase, and the Southern response to American antislavery
  • George Fitzhugh, Roger Taney, and the Northern response to Southern proslavery
  • The secession campaign
  • Barnwell Rhett, the fire-eaters, and Southern independence
  • Stephen Douglas, William Yancey, and the collapse of the Democratic Party
  • The men of the West and the election of 1860
  • Alexander Stephens, Deep South secession, and the failure of Southern unionism
  • Jefferson Davis and the formation of the Cotton Confederacy
  • The road to war
  • John Crittenden and the failure of compromise
  • Abraham Lincoln, Fort Sumter, and the Union
  • Andrew Johnson, John Letcher, and secession in the Upper South
  • Epilogue: some thoughts on alternatives and consequences
  • Bibliographical essay and recommended readings
  • Index.