Apostles of Disunion
Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War: Fifteenth Anniversary Edition

I was underwhelmed by this book. It is short and its research focus is limited, its popularity having to do with the anti-Confederate bend of scholarship. Dew tries to mitigate this by discussing how he is a son of the South, but he is here to tell you he has seen the light, and believes that if we......more

This is a remarkable and eye opening account written by a Southerner on the true cause of the Civil War. No revisionist history, no editorializing, no spinning, just the stark unadulterated words and oratory taken from letters and speeches of a group of men called “Secession Commissioners” who fanne......more

As Dave Barry once noted, identifying the causes of the Civil War used to be easy: "Slavery. Now go get grandpa a bottle of wine." Nineteenth-century Confederate apologists and twentieth-century historians, some with significant Southern sympathies, complicated this simple interpretive picture by ar......more

Very short (81 well-spaced pages), but fairly good. Provides plenty of evidence that the Civil War was a war fought over slavery rather than states' rights, but unfortunately doesn't really engage the other side. A bit repetitive too. Not nearly the knock-out punch to states' rights that it portrays......more

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in studying the secession winter or the causes of the American Civil War. Although it is based on top-notch scholarship, the book is also concise, well-written, and accessible to the general reader.......more