Notes Concerning the Author
Avery Odelle Craven (1885 – 1980) was an American historian who specialized in the study of the nineteenth-century America and the War Between the States. Of a Quaker background, born, raised and educated in Iowa, Craven cannot be mistaken for a Southern partisan. Yet his work can be trusted. He graduated from Simpson College in 1908, earned an M.A. from Harvard in 1914 and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1923. Four years later he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, where he spent the rest of his career. His works included Edmund Ruffin, Southerner, a Study in Secession (1932), The Coming of the Civil War (1942) and The Growth of Southern Nationalism, 1848-1861 (1953). Craven, blessed with a long life, is known for his presentation of truthful history
Abstract
Chapters in this almost 500-page book include: The National Setting; A Way of Life; The Rural Depression, 1800-1832; By the Sweat of Their Faces; The Cotton Kingdom Rises; The Northern Attack on Slavery; The Southern Defense of Slavery; Slavery and Expansion; The Politicians and Slavery; Political Revolt; The First Crisis; The Union on Trial; The Northwest Gets Excited; Sectional Reactions to Events; Building the Republican Party; The Last Crisis, and The Breakup of the Union. There are Notes and a fine Index.
This is a good history of this most complex subject. And it was written by an historian who was born in Iowa and taught for decades in Chicago. Sure does not sound like a biased Southerner. This reviewer wrote, Bloodstains, An Epic History of the Politics that Produced and Sustained the American Civil War and the Political Reconstruction that Followed. He knows a lot about the political causes of the War Between the States and is happy to report that the reader today can trust this work by Avery Craven.
Availability of the Book
We suggest Amazon.com. You will probably find a paperback reprint, issued as a second edition. All can be trusted.
HRW