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1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and the War They Failed to See | 
 enlarge | Author: Bruce Chadwick
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.50
You Save: $13.45 (54%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 426304
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 140220941X
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.711
EAN: 9781402209413
ASIN: 140220941X
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Highly recommendeda gripping narrative of the critical year of 1858 and the nation's slide toward disunion and war. Chadwick is especially adept at retelling the intense emotions of this critical time, particularly especially in recounting abolitionist opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act and Jefferson Davis's passionate defense of this institution. For readers seeking to understand how individuals are agents of historical change will find Chadwick's account of the failed leadership of President James Buchanan, especially compelling."
-G. Kurt Piehler, author of "Remembering War the American Way" and Associate Professor of History, The University of Tennessee
1858 explores the events and personalities of the year that would send the America's North and South on a collision course culminating in the slaughter of 630,000 of the nation's young men, a greater number than died in any other American conflict. The record of that year is told in seven separate stories, each participant, though unaware, is linked to the oncoming tragedy by the central, though ineffective, figure of that time, the man in the White House, President James Buchanan.
The seven figures who suddenly leap onto history's stage and shape the great moments to come are: Jefferson Davis, who lived a life out of a Romantic novel, and who almost died from herpes simplex of the eye; the disgruntled Col. Robert E. Lee, who had to decide whether he would stay in the military or return to Virginia to run his family's plantation; William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the great Union generals, who had been reduced to running a roadside food stand in Kansas; the uprising of eight abolitionists in Oberlin, Ohio, who freed a slave apprehended by slave catchers, and set off a fiery debate across America; a dramatic speech by New York Senator William Seward in Rochester, which foreshadowed the civil war and which seemed to solidify his hold on the 1860 Republican Presidential nomination; John Brown's raid on a plantation in Missouri, where he freed several slaves, and marched them eleven hundred miles to Canada, to be followed a year later by his catastrophic attack on Harper's Ferry; and finally, Illinois Senator Steven Douglas' seven historic debates with little-known Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois Senate race, that would help bring the ambitious and determined Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States.
As these stories unfold, the reader learns how the country reluctantly stumbled towards that moment in April 1861 when the Southern army opened fire on Fort Sumter.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Why I closed the book on the third page November 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Others can comment on the book more thoroughly than I can. But I quote from page 3: "...controversy still raged over the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ... in which the high court upheld the Fugitive Slave Act, reappealed the Missouri Compromise of 1850..." Dred Scott had nothing to do with the Fugitive Slave Act, the Missouri Compromise was in 1820, and the Compromise of 1850 was a separate act. And it's "repealed," not "reappealed." When I learn that I can't trust a historical author to get details right, I close the book.
Misleading title August 8, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I will confess straight away that I have not read the book, but I find the title so misleading that I feel compelled to comment. None of these figures 'failed to see' that the Civil War was a great threat and possibly inevitable. See The Impending Crisis by David Potter, The Road to Disunion by Freehing, or Michael Holt's books.
Humdrum writing levels interesting history August 6, 2008
"The year 1858 could not have started in a grander fashion than it did...in Washington, D.C." (p. 1), but subsequent events would prove the year's political events decisive as the nation moved toward civil war. The text considers these events primarily by presenting a series of vignettes focusing on the administration of President James Buchanan interspersed with extended biographical studies of individuals shortly to become famous, as well as in-depth studies of critical events transpiring during the year. Of necessity, events occurring outside of 1858 are reviewed to set the context as well as to place studied situations within their greater historical significance--but the text successfully balances the presentation of material to maintain a focus on 1858. The text presents Buchanan as an ineffectual and vindictive president out of touch with political reality and incapable of dealing with the polarized politics of the era. Buchanan, derisively known as "Old Public Functionary" (p. 4), was pro-slavery and erroneously believed the best way to lead the nation was by decree, not compromise. The general and widespread failure of his administration, more than anything else, is proposed in the text as the root cause of the Civil War.
Biographical chapters include studies on Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, William Tecumseh Sherman, and John Brown. Each man is presented in a method befitting his legacy, and each is matched to the impending conflict. However, white the biographies on Lee and Sherman are instructive and fascinating, in 1858 they were essentially insignificant and this is felt in the text as their biographies to 1858 are largely disconnected from the remainder of the text. Davis, suffering from "herpes...in the form of neuralgia that incapacitated his left eye" (p. 29); Lincoln, stating "that the United States could not go on with half of the country condoning slavery" (p. 96); Seward, "one of the country's most spellbinding orators" (p. 173); and John Brown, "like a biblical figure" (p. 247) are period figures well-known to any student. Their biographies are fascinating though often marred by stereotypical portrayals. A concise biography is also presented for Stephen Douglas. In-depth studies of critical events include the infamous Dred Scott decision; the Lincoln-Douglas debates; The Buchanan-Forney feud; the anti-slavery activities transpiring in Oberlin, Ohio; and Brown's various compelling and divisive actions.
The text does an excellent job of presenting a singular year in history and establishing it within the greater context of the Civil War while it suffers from a fairly unimaginative writing style with a preponderance of similarly-constructed sentences. Various kinds of typographical errors are unfortunately common. The compound effect of these defects renders the book's overall texture mechanical and uninviting: an editor's influence is conspicuously absent.
 1858---The Year The Civil War Became Irrepressible? June 19, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and The War They Failed to See, Bruce Chadwick , Sourcebooks Inc., 355 pp., notes, bibliography, index, 2008, $24.95
1858 offers clear and concise descriptions of key political and social events that shoved the states into rebellion and resistance. Adventurous and even compelling at times, 1858 moves the reader through twelve months of political and social turmoil. Chadwick explores not the mundane but the exceptional.
Not familiar to most Civil War readers is Jefferson Davis' 1858 visit to Maine in order to recuperate from herpes and build a coalition of Northern Democrats in a bid to establish a presidential candidacy in 1860. The Southern press pilloried him to the point that when he returned he retracted his statements. Ironically, these retractions put him into a position where he would be offered a presidency in 1861, that of the Confederate States of America.
In one six page chapter, Chadwick offers a cogent and balanced description of the Dred Scott Decision, one of the most important U.S. Supreme Court event in U.S. history. His ability to put into place the origins, personalities, issues, and outcomes of this event is exceptional. As a Advance Placement U.S. History test reader, CWL reflected that this chapter would be a fine contribution to student resources.
Though CWL is quite familiar with the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Oberlin Ohio Rescue and John Brown's escape with slaves from Missouri to Canada, Chadwick offers the essentials in a manner that captures the excitement and underscores their place in bringing the states to the brink of rebellion in 1860. After reading 1858, Civil War buffs may have a new appreciation for the events leading to the Secession Winter of 1860-1861. Some readers may need to keep in mind that all soldiers in the ranks had lived through and had argued over the events of 1858.
Though a Pennsylvanian, CWL has not be able to work up any enthusiasm for James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States. Chadwick's 1858 covers the Buchanan presidency in nine chapters that fall between chapters on Davis, Lee, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Oberlin Rescue, Seward's Irrepressible Conflict speech, and John Brown's rescue of slaves from Missouri. Read consecutively the Buchanan White House chapters make the case for this Northern Democrat holding Southern Democrats' interest higher than his own section and possibly allowing the conflict to become truly irrepressible.
Some quibbles: The subtitle is unclear; nine of 17 chapters deal with the Buchanan White House, two deal with Lincoln and Douglas, and single chapters deal with Lee, Davis, Seward, Sherman, The Dred Scott Decision, John Brown's Raid on Missouri and the Slaveholder's raid on Nicaragua. Mysteriously, U.S. Grant is mentioned only on four pages in the book but is in the subtitle. Buchanan has nine chapters but has no mention in the title at all.
CWL suggests that the subtitle be changed for the paperback edition: 1858--The Year the Civil War Became Inevitable for Davis, Lee, Douglas, Lincoln, Seward, Sherman and John Brown. Or 1858--Blood Before The Civil War's Dawn: The Men Who Pulled the Trigger on the War.
Chadwick assumes the reader has no detailed understanding of the period; 1858 is written for the general audience. For the paperback edition, a chronology for the year should be added as well as a brief chronology of the 1846-1860 era. A list of characters would also be helpful for the general audience. Also, the index needs some attention. The entry--Forney, John--lists 6 pages with three subtopics. John Forney has a whole chapter, Number Nine, pages 135-140 but these pages are not listed under the entry--Forney, John--in the index. Some proofreading needs to be done. Notes 159, 160 and 161 are the same font size as the text font; these note number should be the superscript font size, just like the other 744 notes.
So so over view of the last years before the Civil War June 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have to admit that I can't quite place this book. I would say on the one hand I was disappointed because while it did a good job of portraying the year 1858 it could have just as easily been 1856 or 1860, both of which would have been more interesting. The book spent a lot of time focusing on personal rivalries to the detriment of painting the national picture. Also certain figures who would rise to prominence in the Civil War were given great exposure yet others were barely mentioned. (Like Grant)
So all in all if you like the period, there are worse reads out there but I still think that James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom does a much better job at portraying the period.
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