Emotional and sectional conflict in the antebellum United States / Michael E. Woods.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woods, Michael E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Political aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Slavery.

Slavery--Political aspects.

Social conflict.

History.

Emotions--Political aspects.

Emotions.

Emotions--Social aspects.

Sectionalism (United States).

Slavery--Social aspects.

United States.

Slavery--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Sectionalism (United States)--History--19th century.

Emotions--Social aspects--History--19th century.

Emotions--Political aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Social conflict--United States--History--19th century.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Causes.

United States--Social conditions--To 1865.

Social conditions.

United States--Politics and government--1815-1861.

Politics and government.

Political science.

Social history.

War--Causes.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 250 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Summary:

"The sectional conflict over slavery in the United States was not only a clash between labor systems and political ideologies but also a viscerally felt part of the lives of antebellum Americans. This book contributes to the growing field of emotions history by exploring how specific emotions shaped Americans' perceptions of, and responses to, the sectional conflict in order to explain why it culminated in disunion and war. Emotions from indignation to jealousy were inextricably embedded in antebellum understandings of morality, citizenship, and political affiliation. Their arousal in the context of political debates encouraged Northerners and Southerners alike to identify with antagonistic sectional communities and to view the conflicts between them as worth fighting over. Michael E. Woods synthesizes two schools of thought on Civil War causation: the fundamentalist, which foregrounds deep-rooted economic, cultural, and political conflict, and the revisionist, which stresses contingency, individual agency, and collective passion"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Finding the heart of the sectional conflict

Prologue: Slavery, sectionalism, and the affective theory of the Union

Part I. Emotion and the Growth of Sectional Political Identities

Free labor, slave labor, and the political economy of happiness

Managed hearts and unmanageable slaves

Jealousy and the sectionalization of emotional styles

Part II. Emotion and the Mobilization of Sectional Coalitions

Indignation and the fitful growth of mass antislavery sentiment, 1820-1856

Indignation and the Northern mobilization for war, 1856-1861

Political jealousy and Southern radicalism from nullification to secession

Mourning and the mobilization of reluctant secessionists, 1860-1861

Epilogue: Reconstructing the affective theory of the Union.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107068988

1107068983

9781107667518

1107667518

OCLC:

878050720

Online:

Cover image