Emotional and sectional conflict in the antebellum United States / Michael E. Woods, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woods, Michael E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Slavery.

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

Sectionalism (U.S.)--History--19th century.

Sectionalism (U.S.).

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

Emotions.

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

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

Social conflict.

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

United States.

United States--Social conditions--To 1865.

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

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 250 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Emotional & Sectional Conflict in the Antebellum United States

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The sectional conflict over slavery in the United States was not only a clash between labour 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.

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:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

ISBN:

1-316-05547-7

1-316-08384-5

1-316-05784-4

1-316-08148-6

1-316-07202-9

1-107-70645-9

1-316-07675-X

1-316-07912-0

1-316-07438-2