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189th out of 419 books
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423 voters
Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War with a New Introductory Essay
by
Eric Foner
Since its publication twenty-five years ago, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men has been recognized as a classic, an indispensable contribution to our understanding of the causes of the American Civil War. A key work in establishing political ideology as a major concern of modern American historians, it remains the only full-scale evaluation of the ideas of the early Republic...more
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
April 20th 1995
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published 1971)
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So many grotesque, Flannery O’Connor-ish names in this! Real people were helplessly christened, or intentionally styled themselves E. Rockwood Hoar, Abijah Mann, Hannibal Hamlin, Thurlow Weed, Orestes Brownson, Azariah Flagg, Galusha Grow, Ichabod Codding and, my personal and everlasting favorite, Godlove Orth. Say that in a seductive tone. Godlove. And when you step back, “Abraham Lincoln” is mighty strange too, that nineteenth century joining of an Old Testament patriarch or holy warrior to a...more
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In Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, Eric Foner puts forth a compelling argument chronicling the coalescence of the Republican party under the ideology of free labor. Before reading this book, I was largely unaware of the disparate elements that came together to form the Republican party prior to the Civil War, and the complex maneuverings on major issues that had to be done in order to create one party out of these groups with their different interests, emphases, and views regarding the future o...more
Foner walks us through the rise of the Republican Party in the 1850s. It makes for very interesting reading. I will list the interesting facts that I gleaned from it:
I am a cynic, and my interpretation is this. The north went to heroic lengths to assuage the south with the compromise of 1850, and the south thanked them with the Bleeding Kansas debacle and the Dred Scott ruling. The Democratic Party was functioning as a de facto regional power, blatantly subservient to the Slave Power. The situat...more
I am a cynic, and my interpretation is this. The north went to heroic lengths to assuage the south with the compromise of 1850, and the south thanked them with the Bleeding Kansas debacle and the Dred Scott ruling. The Democratic Party was functioning as a de facto regional power, blatantly subservient to the Slave Power. The situat...more
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This is the best intellectual history of the Antebellum period that I have yet read. Foner does a wonderful job of examining the emergent ideology of both the Republican Party, which would become the ideology of modern America, as well as the ideology of the slave-holding aristocrats of the South. In a nutshell, this is the history of how the United States became bourgeois. I recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, in examining the underlying causes of the Civil War, and in...more
This was assigned reading for my Civil War university class.
This book is a somewhat interesting, but not fun. This is the second book I have read by Foner (after "Reconstruction") and I found them similiar: good information but a slow read. I think he is simply a dry writer. He also doesn't present history chronologically which can make it difficult to relate all the parts correctly. This book is at times more political theory than history; I usually love to read history, but find political theo...more
This book is a somewhat interesting, but not fun. This is the second book I have read by Foner (after "Reconstruction") and I found them similiar: good information but a slow read. I think he is simply a dry writer. He also doesn't present history chronologically which can make it difficult to relate all the parts correctly. This book is at times more political theory than history; I usually love to read history, but find political theo...more
This is an excellent, detailed, and tightly focused account of the rise of the Republican Party. Organized around particular issues (e.g. Republicans and nativism, Republicans and race, moderate v radical Republicans, etc.), Foner examines a variety of influences on party thought, policy, and ideology. This organization also makes it an especially useful book for students.
I highly recommend this text to anyone interested in the intellectual and political milieu of Lincoln or the antislavery nort...more
I highly recommend this text to anyone interested in the intellectual and political milieu of Lincoln or the antislavery nort...more
Eric Foner will never waste your time. Each work he produces is of excellent quality. What is even more impressive is that this book was originally his dissertation. Foner explains why white people cared about slavery aside from the moral argument, which did not resonate with many whites. Many were more concerned with the dignity of labor and how slavery would depress the economy. This book is a standard for anyone wanting to understand antislavery and Republican ideology in the 1850s.
Did not get the chance to read more than the intro, conclusion and various bits scattered about between. I would like to buckle down and read this whole thing though, I just do not have time at the moment. Lots of insight here into the years leading up to the Civil War, and what the Democrats were really thinking and what the Republicans were really thinking. Much more nuanced story than simply pro vs. anti slavery, racist vs. non-racist.
Foner's dissertation, political history. Tracks free soil ideology, focusing particularly on Seward, Chase, and Greeley. In 25th anniversary edition, Foner responds in a new foreword to more recent scholarship, and qualifies some of his earlier statements. This is one of those books you just can’t avoid reading.
i already knew eric foner was a noted historian, so i found myself most excited to read this when it was assigned in a history class. foner maps out the formation of the republican party in the decades leading up to the civil war, how it was the perfect combination of everyone who wasn't in big business in the nroth and who wasn't a planter in the south. the sturcture is very easy, whether because foner is that good, or the republican party's makeup is that obvious, but it is by no means a read...more
Very impressive study of Republican ideology in the antebellum era, with particular attention to the formation of the party. As a result, Foner highlights the many fissures and seams in the party right up until the war. This book is extremely useful for examining the rationale behind the federal government's actions when South Carolina seceded. It was the next logical progression, as determined by their ideology, much like how secession for the South was when Lincoln was elected president and th...more
Useful political world views from the mid-19th century US.
Important, but odd organization
Mar 07, 2010
Chanita.Shannon
marked it as to-read
recommended by esther
Foner=solid.
Extremely boring.
A well researched and argued book, written with clarity, but not flair. Foner really does live up to his reputation.
A classic book of Civil War history, Foner looks at the development of the Republican Party's ideology in the years before the Civil War. It's an interesting, nuanced look at a topic that many people don't know enough about.
Jul 30, 2007
Donnie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People who like history
Shelves:
history
Wow! Shows the real story behind why the Republicans took over and won the election (Lincoln's election). Lincoln was anti-slavery, but also anti-black.
Jun 18, 2013
Ryan
added it
Jun 17, 2013
Stephanie Doktor
marked it as to-read
Jun 11, 2013
Austen Ramsey
marked it as to-read
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Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. In his teaching and scholarship, Foner focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, slavery, and nineteenth-century America. His Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, won the Bancroft, Parkman, and Los Angeles Times Book prizes and remains the standard history of the p...more
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