The fate of their country. The Fate of Their Country by Michael F. Holt · OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive): eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries 2019-01-23

THE FATE OF THEIR COUNTRY

Slavery was the focal point of the economy in the South, this inthrallment was the fuel for the agricultural South… 1447 Words 6 Pages Slavery and The Civil War When most people think of Abraham Lincoln, They remember him as the one President, or the one single entity , who freed the slaves. Including select speeches by Lincoln and others, The Fate of Their Country openly challenges us to rethink a seminal moment in America's history. Although you will need to summarize the major points made by the author as you describe the book? He already knows how it going to turnout so why even blow centuries of time watching this boring play. A very good explanation peeps through the text repeatedly. Lead up to, and state, the author? Douglas's fateful decision in 1854 to cooperate in the repeal of the provisions, which enraged antislavery northerners and precipitated the organization of the Republican Party. This thing called fate is able to control a person and that person has no ability to change it. This was strong medicine for southern Whigs, and they can hardly be blamed thereafter for refusing to support President Taylor's plan to quickly admit New Mexico and California as states.

Book Review: The Fate Of Their Country

However, Holt maintains that it was not slavery per se that was the fatal issue. However, make sure your paper uses quotes sparingly, and only when the author? Douglas who worked hard and strived to complete the Transcontinental Railroad which was made to seem as the greatest gift of the era to the American people was in part actually to make sure that it would pass through his own estates and land to create a profit for him. Holt convincingly offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. Having acquired the votes of northern Democratic senators for the resolution by promising that he would renegotiate the terms of annexation after its passage, he promptly broke his word. Despite the majority opinion held in both the North and South that slavery could never flourish in the areas that sparked the most contention from 1845 to 1861-the Mexican Cession, Oregon, and Kansas-politicians in Washington, especially members of Congress, realized the partisan value of the issue and acted on short-term political calculations with minimal regard for sectional comity.

The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of ...

Undeniably, the consequences of public debate over slavery were portentous. Holt also explores the motivations and reasoning behind some of the very well-known figures in Natures Fate When we think of the word nature we think of green grassy fields, birds flying over mountains and endless blue skies. Yet to deny that politicians were the critical factor is not to say that they were insignificant--far from it. Yet none of this robust competition, a product of rampant partisanship, led to civil war. But high positions are very limited. Fate is the supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.

The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of ...

Another takeaway is that the continuing crisis over the often illusory expansion of slavery was more about the honor and dignity of slaveowning elites and the people of the South as a whole than it was over the practical implications of slavery, and that the inability of Southerners to defend their own honor without offending the honor and dignity of Northerners led to a series of crises that ended up forcing the Civil War. Holt needs no introduction to historians of the United States. The United States were no longer united, mainly over the issue of slavery. Holt's latest book, retracing much the same ground in greatly abbreviated fashion, does not break from the mold. Short-sighted politicians were to blame. In the course of his narrative, if not in his thesis, Holt often recognizes that politicians did in fact respond to public pressure. The result was such things as the Wilmot Proviso, that never-passed legislation, hated in the South, which would have prevented the extension of slavery to the territories acquired through the Mexican War.

THE FATE OF THEIR COUNTRY by Michael F. Holt

In this book, Holt demonstrates that secession and war did not arise from two irreconcilable economies any more than from moral objections to slavery: short-sighted politicians were to blame. This breed of people believes that nothing can control all events and that the mind can resist all temptations if properly trained. Despite the majority opinion held in both the North and South that slavery could never flourish in the areas that sparked the most contention from 1845 to 1861-the Mexican Cession, Oregon, and Kansas-politicians in Washington, especially members of Congress, realized the partisan value of the issue and acted on short-term political calculations with minimal regard for sectional comity. Polk, an unrepentant nationalist and expansionist. Holt offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics.

The fate of their country : politicians, slavery extension, and the coming of the Civil War in SearchWorks catalog

After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery. By this logic, the Civil War was caused by an abstraction rather than by an actual problem. Sophocles effectively depicts the wrath of fate as he portrays how Oedipus fell victim to fate and his efforts to disregard fate were… Words 944 - Pages 4. Although the historian may be excused for wondering if Douglas later privately regretted sponsoring the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in 1854 he expected to achieve a political triumph that would benefit his party and the Union. Instead he argues that shortsighted and self-absorbed politicians from both the South and the North their agendas focused, for the most part, on simple re-election needlessly exploited the slavery-extension debate and escalated the associated rhetoric to a crescendo that finally made disunion inevitable. Fehrenbacher's The South and Three Sectional Crises 1980 , although Holt provides a stronger historical narrative, linking his chapters together and presents an altogether contrasting argument.

THE FATE OF THEIR COUNTRY by Michael F. Holt

Rarely looking beyond the next election, the two dominant political parties used the emotionally charged and largely chimerical issue of slavery's extension westward to pursue reelection and settle political scores, all the while inexorably dragging the nation towards disunion. As a result of the Mexican War, the U. Because of its effect it has on the men that come home from war, I think people have such a hard time trying to comprehend the meaning of war. It was a bloody and brutal war between brothers. Then there was the Compromise of 1850, which allowed California to enter as a free state in turn for letting other new states in the southwest decide the issue for themselves.

Book Review: The Fate Of Their Country

Instead, northern Whigs insisted that slavery be barred from the territory prior to the meeting of a state constitutional convention. His fear must have been palpable given the triumphs of Southern Democrats in the Mississippi and Georgia elections that year, which resulted in stridently proslavery public declarations by Democratic politicians. Holt convincingly offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. He is neither physically nor psychologically able to handle such a task and through time the tables are turned and she now takes care of her out. Whereas Fehrenbacher emphasized the long-standing resistance of Southerners to antislavery politics and hence the core problem of slavery in antebellum politics, including secession, Holt contends that political decisions made from 1846 to 1858 played a critical role in intensifying sectional hostility prior to secession and the Civil War. I feel at times that I am behind on a lot of things, including how to be cool. Consider the organization of the book.

The Fate of Their Country

However, the one irresolvable issue was slavery. If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at:. I have duties to my conscience above all; I have obligations to the families who suffer, to my aged parents, whose sighs pierce my heart. Holt discounts the view that the war arose inevitably from two irreconcilable economies as well as the more naïve interpretation that it derived from righteous Northern outrage over slavery. At best, I think, the actions of political leaders determined when, not whether the conflict would occur. Holt's argument is notably similar to Craven and Randall in two respects. Why was the Wilmot Proviso politically dangerous? I almost feel like if I had lived in the city, I might understand more about other types of people as I've said before, I am the only Asian in my town, along with my brother and how they think and interact.