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Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
written by Nicole Etcheson
Studio : University Press of Kansas
by University Press of Kansas
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Released : 2006-09-06
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780700614929
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 4 reviews)
List Price : $17.95
Our Price : $16.15
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Product Description |
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Few people would have expected bloodshed in Kansas Territory. After all, it had few slaves and showed few signs that slavery would even flourish. But civil war tore this territory apart in the 1850s and 60s, and "Bleeding Kansas" became a forbidding symbol for the nationwide clash over slavery that followed. Many free-state Kansans seemed to care little about slaves, and many proslavery Kansans owned not a single slave. But the failed promise of the Kansas-Nebraska Act--when fraud in local elections subverted the settlers' right to choose whether Kansas would be a slave or free state--fanned the flames of war. Nicole Etcheson seeks to revise our understanding of this era by focusing on whites' concerns over their political liberties. The first comprehensive account of "Bleeding Kansas" in more than thirty years, her study re-examines the debate over slavery expansion to emphasize issues of popular sovereignty rather than slavery's moral or economic dimensions. The free-state movement was a coalition of settlers who favored black rights and others who wanted the territory only for whites, but all were united by the conviction that their political rights were violated by nonresident voting and by Democratic presidents' heavy-handed administration of the territories. Etcheson argues that participants on both sides of the Kansas conflict believed they fought to preserve the liberties secured by the American Revolution and that violence erupted because each side feared the loss of meaningful self-governance. "Bleeding Kansas is a gripping account of events and people--rabble-rousing Jim Lane, zealot John Brown, Sheriff Sam Jones, and others--that examines the social milieu of the settlersalong with the political ideas they developed. As Etcheson demonstrates, the struggle over the political liberties of whites may have heightened the turmoil but led eventually to a broadening of the definition of freedom to include blacks. Her insightful re-examination sheds new light on this era and is essential reading for anyone interested in the ideological origins of the Civil War. |
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Order from Chaos |
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Nicole Etcheson does a masterful job of weaving the chaotic detail of the early Kansas chaos into a cogent history. She convincingly demonstrates that the stories we heard in high school of the motivations underlying the conflict were over generalized at best, and usually misleading. Her narrative is lively and her insights are enlightening. This book should be read by anyone interested in the events leading to the Civil War. |
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Too Much a Northern-Biased History |
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It seems to me that the author overrelies on newspaper accounts in her research, which are often notoriously unreliable, especially if far removed from the events that are being described. In addition, newspaper accounts during the Border War were characterized by extreme bias, and Etchison quotes them often without commenting on inaccuracies and distortions, which only reinforces their error. She is sometimes coy in the narrative mode, so much so that even in the description of John Brown ruthlessly hacking to death and shooting the Doyles at Pottatawatomie Creek, she fails to mention who is killing and mutilating, only referring to an "angular old man" in charge and does this for fully a page of text, then only referring to the maniac Brown indirectly, as "old man Brown." What "old man Brown"? What is more incredible, no, flabbergasting, is that she doesn't mention that Brown is killing the three Doyles because they carry warrants for John Brown's arrest for intimidating a Kansas Territorial supreme court judge, a dismal failure in research it seems to me. She also uses the old hackneyed propaganda terms, "bushwhackers," instead of the more accurate, value-neutral term "guerrillas" in describing Missouri insurgents, and also, laughably, employs Horace Greeley's coined, centuries-old, favorite propaganda term, "Border Ruffians" and "ruffians" to describe the Missouri elites' actions in Kansas, an unforgivable, antiquated lapse by someone affecting objectivity. Etcheson's simplistic, description of the Border War is insulting to those who don't share her "liberal" interpretation of events. After 150 years of winners' histories, it's time for a lot more objectivity by our so-called "professional" historians. They should tell it like it is, not how they wish it to "appear" to the uninitiated. |
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Most Comprehensive Up-to-Date History of the start of the Civil War |
Professor Etcheson's book is a thorough, objective view of "Bleeding Kansas," the years leading up to the Civil War (1854 to 1861.) She makes the politics of the time as interesting as the armed combat between the (Kansas/New England) Abolitionist and the (Missouri/Southern) Border Ruffian. Etcheson also looks at all points of view with a frank and honest eye, not lionizing the anti-slavery faction or villainizing the pro-slavery faction.
It is by far the most up-to-date and historically accurate book on this important era. A must-read for the Civil War buff and for those in Kansas and Missouri to understand the integral part the region played in setting the stage for the War Between the States. |
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EXCELLENT. MAKES THE DISPUTE OVER KANSAS VERY UNDERSTANDABLE |
This an excellent account of a complicated political dispute.
the author gives a clear and logical history of bleeding Kansas.
After reading this book, I finally felt like I understood the
issues involved.The author includes lots of information
about how the people of the antebellum period felt to help
the reader understand the conflict. I read alot of popular
history and this is the best I've read in quite awhile.Hats
off to Etcheson for this excellent work. I look foward to
her next work. |
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