428 records matched your query       

Author:

Freeman, Joanne B., 1962- author.

Title:

The field of blood : violence in Congress and the road to civil war / Joanne B. Freeman.

Edition:

First edition.

Publisher:

FarrarStraus and Giroux,

Copyright Date:

2018

Description:

xvii, 450 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Subject:

United States.--Congress--History--19th century.
United States--Politics and government--1815-1861.
United States--Politics and government--1861-1865.
Legislators--United States--History--19th century.
Legislators--Violence against--United States.
Political violence--United States--History--19th century.
Political culture--United States--History--19th century.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-427) and index.

Summary:

The previously untold story of the violence in Congress that helped spark the Civil War. In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn't happen in a vacuum. Freeman's dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities--the feel, sense, and sound of it--as well as its nation-shaping import. Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and other luminaries, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating men. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.

ISBN:

0374154775
9780374154776

OCLC:

(OCoLC)1044782454

LCCN:

2018010176

Locations:

USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)

BOPG851 -- Ames Public Library (Ames)

GBPF771 -- Ankeny Kirkendall Public Library (Ankeny)

TCPG826 -- Bettendorf Public Library Information Center (Bettendorf)

KSPG296 -- Burlington Public Library (Burlington)

SAPG074 -- Cedar Falls Public Library (Cedar Falls)

CEAX572 -- Kirkwood Community College Library (Cedar Rapids)

TYPH572 -- Cedar Rapids Public Library (Cedar Rapids)

CBPF522 -- Coralville Public Library (Coralville)

OJPC027 -- Corning Public Library (Corning)

BAPH771 -- Des Moines Public Library (Des Moines)

DHPB993 -- Dows Community Library (Dows)

FXPH314 -- Carnegie-Stout Public Library (Dubuque)

ALPE516 -- Fairfield Public Library (Fairfield)

CMPE792 -- Drake Community Library (Grinnell)

CAPH522 -- Iowa City Public Library (Iowa City)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)

CGPC482 -- Marengo Public Library (Marengo)

YEPF572 -- Marion Public Library (Marion)

GOPG641 -- Marshalltown Public Library (Marshalltown)

HPPD845 -- Orange City Public Library (Orange City)

PMAX975 -- Morningside University - Hickman-Johnson-Furrow Library (Sioux City)

LAPH975 -- Sioux City Public Library (Sioux City)

CDPC522 -- Solon Public Library (Solon)

GEPG771 -- West Des Moines Public Library (West Des Moines)