ROBERT COOK

The birth of the Republican party in the mid-1850s was one of the most remarkable political developments in U.S. history, for it resulted in the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Baptism of Fire charts the party's progress in early Iowa, where its supporters battled hard (if not always consistently) for the rights of African-Americans and the prosperity of the trans-Mississippi West. Chronological in framework and analytical in content, this book examines the origins and maturation of the virulently anti-Southern organization and emphasizes the significance of ethnocultural and economic issues to Iowans. It illustrates in absorbing detail how the Republicans were able to defeat the ruling Jacksonian Democratic party and take power before fighting a bloody and Internecine war against Southern whites and then hold off a new Democratic challenge during Reconstruction. Baptism of Fire recreates the determined individuals who steered Iowa's antislavery coalition through the vicissitudes of a turbulent era. It also reviews some of the key themes of nineteenth-century American history, most notably the political and social impact of commercial growth, anti-Southern sectionalism, racial prejudice, evangelical religion, corruption, and factionalism. Based on extensive archival research and a quantitative analysis of the Iowa state legislature, Baptism of Fire confirms that the GOP was the party of progress and humanity in early American politics.

"Recounts the planning, organization, and ultimate failure of this controversial event and argues that the broad-based public history extravaganza was derailed in part by its appearance during the decisive phase of the civil rights movement. Cook shows how the centennial provoked widespread alarm among many African Americans, white liberals, and cold warriors because the national commission failed to prevent southern whites from commemorating the Civil War in a racially exclusive fashion. The public outcry followed embarrassing attempts to mark secession, the attack on Fort Sumter, and the South's victory at First Manassas, and prompted a backlash against the celebration, causing the emotional scars left by the war to resurface. Cook convincingly demonstrates that both segregationists and their opponents used the controversy that surrounded the commemoration to their own advantage. Southern whites initially embraced the centennial as a weapon in their fight to save racial segregation, while African Americans and liberal whites tried to transform the event into a celebration of black emancipation... The first comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Civil War Centennial, Troubled Commemoration masterfully depicts the episode as an essential window into the political, social, and cultural conflicts of America in the 1960s and confirms that it has much to tell us about the development of the modern South."--Dust jacket.

Focusing on the period 1848 to 1877 this important social history describes the experiences of ordinary people on the battlefield and beyond, and reveals how the American Civil War paved the way for U.S. great power status and why the U.S.A. rules the world today.

Introduction : the secession crisis as a study in conflict resolution -- Rush to disaster : secession and the slaves' revenge / William L. Barney -- "Save in defense of my native state" : a new look at Robert E. Lee's cecision to join the Confederacy / Elizabeth R. Varon -- "Their object is to hide the truth" : historical memory and the coming of the American Civil War / Robert J. Cook.

A collection of nineteen stories in which men and women who participated in the Civil War, heard about it first hand, or observed it chronicle their experiences.