With the direct, forthright style that marks his writings, Oakes makes clear that the secessionists were right when they claimed that the rise of the Republican party foretokened the death of slavery if they remained in the Union...If any reader still questions whether the Civil War was about slavery, this book overcomes all doubts.
James McPherson Incisive, ... Read moreimaginative, surprising, completely original-everything that one would expect from the most eminent historian of emancipation.
Eric J. Sundquist In clear prose and with searing insight, James Oakes recovers the moral urgency and strategic vision behind the Republican drive to undermine the slave system. A work of great depth and empathy.
Alan Taylor A fitting follow-up to Oakes's game-changing study, Freedom National, shedding further light on how the antislavery movement laid the groundwork for emancipation.
Douglas L. Wilson In four swift, clear strokes, James Oakes has rewritten the history of emancipation in the United States.
Allen C. Guelzo James Oakes has brilliantly reframed our understanding of the Civil War. It is no surprise that Oakes is the first scholar to recover the meaning of the scorpion's sting; his close readings of political documents, delivered in his lucid, elegant style, are virtually unrivaled.
John Stauffer An in-depth look at political attitudes toward slavery at the brink of the Civil War. Show Less