The Impending Crisis
America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861

"To Lincoln, public attitudes were part of the complex of deterministic forces which set the limits of possible action" (see page 347). Historical works like The Impending Crisis by David M Potter are important to America because it is essential that Americans realize that our founding fathers and mo......more

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. Quoted from A final message from John Lewis published in The New York Times shortly before his death on July 17, 2020. Hindsight, the historian’s......more

Even a Pulitzer Prize can date a little. Great book though probably not as "modern" as academic concerns currently are preoccupied with. Nonetheless, it threads the needle between the Mexican War that clearly escalated the slavery crisis through the Compromise of 1850 to the Kansas Nebraska Act to t......more

David Potter died before this book was published so all the success and praise, including a Pulitzer Prize, could only be received posthumously. It is however a magnificent work that captures the over a decade period that was leading up to the Civil War. The book is part of the New American History......more