This book asks why the United States experienced a civil war in 1861 and analyses the descent into war in the final decade of peace. The book systematically surveys southern extremists, Republicans, Democrats, Whigs, temperance advocates and Know Nothings. It advances a new and unique explanation of the origins of the Civil War, the most important event in the history of the most powerful country in the world. | Slavery Capitalism and Politics in the Antebellum Republic: Volume 2 The Coming of the Civil War 1850–1861 by John Ashworth, Paperback