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Eric H. Walther (1960–2023)

Auteur de The fire-eaters

4 oeuvres 117 utilisateurs 4 critiques

Œuvres de Eric H. Walther

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Partage des connaissances

Date de naissance
1960-09-23
Date de décès
2023
Sexe
male

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Critiques

A collective biography of nine of the men who devoted themselves to advocating southern secession before the Civil War.
 
Signalé
antiquary | 2 autres critiques | Jun 11, 2014 |
This book is a collective biography of nine 19th-century intellectuals, activists, and other public figures who were early advocates for secession by the southern slave states from the USA.

Not all southern secessionists had the same motives or were persuaded by the same factors. A majority of white southerners did not commit themselves to southern independence until after Abraham Lincoln's election as president in November 1860, perhaps not until after delegates to a special convention in South Carolina had already voted to secede.

Before then, the political gospel of secession had been proclaimed only by a radical minority dismissively called "fire-eaters" for their overheated rhetoric of doom and danger. This biographical study of nine early secessionists is probably the best way to approach this incohesive group, whose fringe opinions suddenly occupied the southern mainstream during the crisis of 1860.

The fire-eaters had few things in common beside their shared conviction that the slave South could only survive as an independent republic. They imagined that an independent South would cut its ties to the alien North and abandon the corrupt party system that southerners had relied on to protect their slave society. Most of the fire-eaters also rejected democracy in favor of an elite republicanism, believing that government, much like a plantation, was best managed by the "best" men.

Walther's nine subjects include such well known fire-eaters as William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama, Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina, and Virginian Edmund Ruffin. Less well known is Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, the William and Mary law professor who pseudonymously published a novel, The Partisan Leader, that imagined the formation of a Southern Confederacy by 1849. Then there is the former industrial promoter and U.S. Census official James D.B. DeBow, whose widely read De Bow's Review became a forum for openly secessionist writing by 1857.

In 1860, the white South panicked over the rise of the northern-based Republican Party, which they incorrectly linked to radical abolitionism. Ambitious young planters whose fortunes were tied to slavery began to see the fire-eaters as "prophetic, conservative, and wise instead of irresponsible, radical, and rash." By April 1861 the fire-eaters had attained their goal, an independent southern confederacy committed to chattel slavery. Yet most of them, radicals to the core, quickly turned against the Confederate administration of Jefferson Davis.

The fire-eaters led the way to secession, but they never could have achieved it on their own. It was a critical mass of young cotton planters who, with greater political discipline than the fire-eaters, organized and dominated secession conventions that also sent secessionist missionaries into the more reluctant slave states. The majority of white southerners came late to secessionist views, motivated by growing estrangement from the North and fears, exacerbated by propaganda, of the consequences of abolition. As this majority formed, the fire-eaters themselves quickly fell back toward the fringe of what was now Confederate politics.

According to the fire-eater and mathematics professor William Porcher Miles, "the world is governed by 'abstractions.'" Political ideals, honor, even scientific principles rest mainly upon immaterial grounds, Miles insisted, yet they are no less powerful for being unprovable. The abstraction that moved the fire-eaters, and ultimately a majority of white southerners, was the defense and expansion of chattel slavery, despite the world's growing consensus that it was morally indefensible. As De Bow insisted to his readers, "civilization itself may depend upon the continual servitude of the blacks in America." It's not hard to see why present-day white southerners (including this writer) have trouble facing up to the violently racist vision that guided a critical mass of their radicalized ancestors to secede and make war.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Muscogulus | 2 autres critiques | Oct 5, 2013 |
Eric H. Walther’s work The Shattering of the Union: America in the 1850’s sets the table so to speak, for the litany of literature that has been published on the Civil War. A prologue. This is the events, these are the people, the dialog, and the feelings that led to the session of 1860 and that great and terrible war.
Mr. Walther has written a concise, chronological history of the 1850s complete with a list of the cast and characters that played major roles in the events that lead to the (almost) breakup of the union. Stephen Douglas, William Yancey, John Brown, Franklin Pierce, Charles Sumner, and Preston Brooks. Fredrick Douglass, Roger B. Taney, Dred Scott, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln and many, many more were noted along with noble and nefarious actions of each and others. This is a period of time that I am not as familiar with as I feel I should be and wanted something to read that I could ingest without sacrificing all of my free time to finish within a short amount of time. This was a book I was looking for.
The book is written clearly and was quite easy to understand. It is a simple and straightforward history so the organization of and presentation of the material is standard. The author wanted to write a history of the time that is more succinct than some of the grand treatises that are available (i.e. David Potter’s The Impending Crisis). A book that could be used effectively in the classroom. This is a goal that Mr. Walther met with tremendous success. The chapters, each a year in the decade, are not tremendously long, but they do touch on the major events and actors of each period and are understandable by readers that are able to understand somewhat complex webs and interconnecting storylines. Perfect for the college student or armchair civil war/19th century scholar such as myself that is on a time constraint.
The resources that Walther are quality primary sources from the era and are used to great effect to emphasize the point at hand or describe the action, feeling, or person being discussed or analyzed. The end of each chapter has the notes and references listed as well (which I love to refer to). The chapters are presented with a fair and balanced point of view. I could not detect a bias of Northern or Southern. Though the majority of the book focuses on the action of politicians in Washington and the East, Walther does cover some of the events that took place in the West, though to ignore them would be criminal. But to put things in perspective, the big news stories of that decade were mostly made by politicians in the East (no offense to Lincoln and Douglas)
The only thing that is out of place when one first looks at this book is that is begins with the year 1852. I can understand not beginning with the year 1850 because there already is a title in this series that covers this year and the compromise in full (John C Waugh’s On the Brink of Civil War). The prologue touches these years a little bit, but you get the feeling that there is more to the story (especially the year 1851) that the author could have discussed. The prose was a little stiff too which can turn many readers off.
All-in-all I thought that this was a very good book that I would recommend to others. Is it a classic? No. But it is quite a good resource.
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½
 
Signalé
Schneider | Aug 5, 2010 |
Almond returns to some familiar themes--the mystery and the pain of life--in a dramatic story drawn from both global and personal events. It is 1962, and the world is on the brink of nuclear destruction. For Bobby Burns, the waste and ruin is even closer to home: his father is seriously ill, and a cruel schoolmaster is forcing Bobby to take a stand that may destroy his educational chances. As in all of Almond's books, everyday detail mingles with the grotesque. The bizarre here comes in the form of McNulty, a fire-eater and strongman who also pushes sharp objects through his flesh--an explicit demonstration of pain mirrored by Bobby's sticking pins in his hands as a sacrifice to keep his father healthy. For anyone who loves words, Almond's books are a pleasure. But this time the Newcastle accent used by most of the characters may be difficult to grasp initially, and though Almond brings together the strands of his story, some of his many characters are not well integrated. Whatever the book's flaws, though, Almond's writing is so imaginative and layered that turning the pages is always meaningful.
(Ilene Cooper (Booklist, Mar. 15, 2004 (Vol. 100, No. 14))
WON Boston Globe--Horn Book Awards Winner 2004 Fiction and Poetry United States
Guardian Award for Children's Fiction Shortlist 2003 United Kingdom
Nestle Smarties Book Prize Gold Winner 2003 Ages 9-11 United Kingdom
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Signalé
mrg06m | 2 autres critiques | Oct 14, 2007 |

Prix et récompenses

Statistiques

Œuvres
4
Membres
117
Popularité
#168,597
Évaluation
½ 3.5
Critiques
4
ISBN
11

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