You are welcome on both counts. I actually just received Stampp’s book today. I’m going to have to read it soon in order to make the comparison more meaningful for myself, and hopefully in the process for my reviewers as well.

Brett

Thanks for a thorough, thoughtful and interesting review — and for the kind words.

It sounds like Mr. Chadwick may have both promised too much and delivered too little. A claim that 1858 was “THE year slavery became the overriding issue facing the United States” is a bit of overkill. On the other hand, the author did a poor job if he did not convince you that 1857-58 was a turning point of sorts.

Having read your review, it strikes me that Kenneth Stampp’s 1857 is an even better comparator than I imagined. Professor Stampp also argues that 1857-58 was tremendously important. Disunion was significantly more likely after mid-1858 than it had been in the late summer of the year before. I will be fascinated to see whether Stampp does a better job of persuading you of that proposition.