Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War (Civil War America) - Softcover

Shelden, Rachel A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1469626500 ISBN 13: 9781469626505

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015

Synopsis

Traditional portrayals of politicians in antebellum Washington, D.C., describe a violent and divisive society, full of angry debates and violent duels, a microcosm of the building animosity throughout the country. Yet, in Washington Brotherhood, Rachel Shelden paints a more nuanced portrait of Washington as a less fractious city with a vibrant social and cultural life. Politicians from different parties and sections of the country interacted in a variety of day-to-day activities outside traditional political spaces and came to know one another on a personal level. Shelden shows that this engagement by figures such as Stephen Douglas, John Crittenden, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Stephens had important consequences for how lawmakers dealt with the sectional disputes that bedeviled the country during the 1840s and 1850s--particularly disputes involving slavery in the territories.
Shelden uses primary documents--from housing records to personal diaries--to reveal the ways in which this political sociability influenced how laws were made in the antebellum era. Ultimately, this Washington "bubble" explains why so many of these men were unprepared for secession and war when the winter of 1860-61 arrived.

About this title

About the Author:

Rachel A. Shelden is assistant professor of history at the University of Oklahoma.

Review:

Shelden pulls back the facade of sectionalist pistol-wielding and Bowie knife-brandishing to reveal the surprising brotherhood that existed within the antebellum Washington community.--Mark E. Neely Jr., McCabe-Greer Professor of Civil War History, Pennsylvania State University
In her striking new book, Rachel Shelden goes behind the scenes to show readers a Washington, D.C., in the years before the Civil War that rarely reached the public eye. She highlights sociable day-to-day life in boardinghouses and hotels, where Northerners and Southerners took their measure of each other and often became friends. When secession suddenly brought their world to a screeching halt, many of the dismayed principals tried vainly to stem the torrent."—Daniel W. Crofts, The College of New Jersey

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1469626500
• ISBN 13: 9781469626505
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296