Slavery, Capitalism, and Politics in the Antebellum Republic: Volume 1, Commerce and Compromise, 1820–1850

Slavery, Capitalism, and Politics in the Antebellum Republic #1

by John Ashworth

This is the first of a two-volume treatment of slavery, capitalism and politics in the forty years before the Civil War. It is both a novel reinterpretation, from a Marxist perspective, of American political and economic development and a synthesis of existing scholarship on the economics of slavery, the origins of abolitionism, the proslavery argument and the second party system. With its sequel, this book will locate the political struggles of the antebellum period in the international context of the dismantling of unfree labor systems. It will also show that the Civil War should be seen as America's "bourgeois revolution."

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction

536 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 1996

Reviews

[Maggie Brandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and original analysis, concentrating on the deeper economic and sociological forces underlying the political proxy wars of the era, but not glossing over important short-term shifts in political alignment