Drawing on the history of the British gentry to explain the contrasting sentiments of American small farmers and plantation owners, James L. Huston's expansive

JAMES L. HUSTON is professor of history at Oklahoma State University and the author of The Panic of 1857 and the Coming of the Civil War; Securing the Fruits of

Historians have long contested the degree to which the central tenet of the Declaration of Independence—that all men are created equal—has manifested itself

Most mid-nineteenth-century Americans regarded the United States as an exceptional democratic republic that stood apart from a world seemingly riddled with revo

Winner of the Russell P. Strange Memorial Book Award This sweeping narrative presents an original and compelling explanation for the triumph of the antislavery