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The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War - Couverture rigide

Quigley, Paul

 
9780197667262: The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0197667260 ISBN 13 : 9780197667262
Editeur : Oxford University Press Inc, 2026

Synopsis

A new perspective on the life of the US politician best known for the infamous assault that paved the bloody road to the Civil War. In 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks assaulted Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the US Capitol, defending his family's honor and the rights of slaveholders. In beating Sumner unconscious, Brooks fueled a nationwide clash over slavery that ended in civil war. Southern historian Paul Quigley brings Brooks to life more vividly than ever before, revealing how his personal struggles shaped the fateful decision to attack Sumner. Raised in the slaveholding culture of honor and scarred by missed opportunities for glory in the Mexican-American War, Brooks came to believe in the redemptive power of violence. Blending intimate personal history with wide-ranging analysis of political debates, Quigley uses Brooks's life to examine the deeper currents propelling the United States to the brink of destruction. Brooks's story reveals the increasingly fraught relationship between words and violence: When did words such as "liar" or "coward" justify duels? Did abolitionists' verbal attacks on slaveholders warrant physical retaliation? How did the way Americans talked about violence affect the likelihood that it would occur? With the caning, Brooks sparked an ominous national debate over the righteousness of bloodshed in a polarized nation. Examining enduring issues of masculinity, honor, and free speech, The Man Behind the Cane shows how words and violent behavior became perilously entangled in the fight over slavery and casts new light on the origins of the Civil War-and the ongoing dangers of political violence in our own time.

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À propos de l'auteur

Paul Quigley is the James I. Robertson, Jr. Associate Professor of Civil War History at Virginia Tech, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Humanities and Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. He is author of the award-winning Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-65 (OUP, 2011).

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Éditeur
Oxford University Press Inc
Date d'édition
2026
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0197667260
ISBN 13 
9780197667262
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
256
Coordonnées du fabricant
Oxford University Press
https://corp.oup.com/

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