This fresh examination of antebellum politics comprehensively examines the ways that gender issues and gendered discourse exacerbated fissures within the Democratic Party in the critical years between 1856 and 1861. Whereas the cultural politics of gender had bolstered Democratic unity through the 1850s, the Lecompton crisis and John Brown's raid revealed that white manhood and its association with familial and national protection meant disparate-and ultimately incompatible-things in free and slave society. In fierce debates over the extension of slavery, gendered rhetoric hardened conflicts that ultimately led to the outbreak of the Civil War. Lauren Haumesser here traces how northern and southern Democrats and their partisan media organs used gender to make powerful arguments about slavery as the sectional crisis grew, from the emergence of the Republican Party to secession. Gendered charges and countercharges turned slavery into an intractable cultural debate, raising the stakes of every dispute and making compromise ever more elusive.
Lauren N. Haumesser holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Virginia.
The Democratic Collapse is clearly and succinctly written. Haumesser has an eye for compelling evidence, and students and scholars will understand and enjoy her book."--Journal of Southern History The Democratic Collapse is sufficiently thoughtful to force us to ask whether secession really stemmed from an upswing in gendered partisan rhetoric."--North Carolina Historical Review Lauren N. Haumesser's The Democratic Collapse plunges readers into the deep gulf that was the United States political arena in the late 1850s. This well researched and well written work traces the national lifespan of the Democratic Party from the election of 1856 and the defeat of John C. Fremont to President Abraham Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops following the fall of Fort Sumter and the secession of the remaining Confederate states. . . a must read."--Journal of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era This thoughtful monograph is an engaging reinterpretation of familiar themes and events from the late antebellum period. . . . Haumesser's discussions of women's rights and free love stand out."--Journal of American History Engaging and succinct . . . shed[s] new light on the coming of the Civil War through a careful examination of the gendered rhetoric of Republicans, Democrats, and, ultimately, Constitutional Unionists."--Civil War Book Review Haumesser's excellent book is a welcome addition to antebellum political history and gender studies . . . [and] should be a standard volume of political and gender history that appears alongside classic books like David Potter's The Impending Crisis."--Civil War Monitor
