Storm over Texas: The Annexation Controversy and the Road to Civil War

by Joel H. Silbey

Overview

In the spring of 1844, a fiery political conflict erupted over the admission of Texas into the Union. This hard-fought and bitter controversy profoundly changed the course of American history. Indeed, as Joel Silbey argues in Storm Over Texas, it marked the crucial moment when partisan differences were transformed into a North-vs-South antagonism, and the momentum towards Civil War leaped into high gear.
Silbey, one of America's most renowned political historians, offers a swiftly paced and compelling narrative of the Texas imbroglio, which included an exceptional cast of characters, from John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams, to James K. Polk and Martin Van Buren. We see how a series of unexpected moves, some planned, some inadvertent, sparked a crisis that intensified and crystallized the North-South divide. Sectionalism, Silbey shows, had often been intense, but rarely widespread and generally well contained by other forces. After Texas statehood, it became a driving force in national affairs, ultimately leading to Southern secession and Civil War.
With subtlety, great care, and much imagination, Joel Silbey shows that this brief political struggle became, in the words of an Alabama congressman, "the greatest question of the age"—and a pivotal moment in American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195315929
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/01/2007
Series:	Pivotal Moments in American History
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	743,180
Product dimensions:	8.84(w) x 5.68(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Joel H. Silbey is President White Professor of History at Cornell University. He is the author of Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era, The Partisan Imperative: The Dynamics of American Politics Before the Civil War, and Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics.

Editorial Reviews

"Enlightening...Silbey presents a lucid, fine-grained political history, complete with nuanced profiles of political leaders, that illuminates this watershed era of American history."—Publishers Weekly

"A superb account of the political road to disunion and Civil War. We should be grateful to Silbey for showing so clearly the role Texas played in bringing about the war that did eventually take place."—Stephen E. Maizlish, Civil War Book Review

"As a watershed episode in the collapse into ominous sectionalism, the politics of Texas's admission into the American Union have long demanded special attention. Fusing pacy narrative with shrewd analysis, this splendid book confirms Joel Silbey's reputation as one of the most discerning of American political historians."—Richard Carwardine, Rhodes Professor of American History, University of Oxford, author of Lincoln

"One of America's best political historians here demonstrates that Texas Annexation was one of the nation's prime turning points. Silbey's clear writing, impressive learning, and balanced judgments make this book a valuable addition to the excellent Pivotal Moments series."—William W. Freehling, author of The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854

"Few, if any, living historians know as much about nineteenth-century American politics and public policy as Joel Silbey. Here he lavishes that mastery on what is arguably the most pivotal turning point on the road to Civil War—the annexation of Texas and the sectional controversy that annexation ignited. This conjunction of masterful historian with an all-important subject yields a book of unquestionable significance to anyone interested in what caused the American Civil War."—Michael F. Holt, author of The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War

"Thomas Jefferson may have heard a 'firebell in the night' when Missouri applied for statehood, but veteran political historian Silbey's cogent analysis suggests that Texas created an even greater crisis two decades later, one that fundamentally altered American party politics, spreading sectional passions more deeply and pervasively than ever before. His work clarifies and sharpens our understanding of how sectional forces played out in politics to bring about a civil war."—Phyllis F. Field, Associate Professor of History, Ohio University

"What if the political leadership of the day had guessed at the violence and intensity of the storm that Joel Silbey sees as springing from passions loosed by the quest to annex Texas? Might the politicians have approached the annexation enterprise with greater care and unction? Would they have approached it at all? Silbey is a good explainer, let's be grateful [to him] for deftly reminding us that political dysfunction didn't originate during the Clinton and Bush administrations."—William Murchison, The Weekly Standard

"A measured and accessible take on the most tangled political crisis this young nation had faced up to that point. Twenty years after, its effects would be felt in a far greater one."—Austin Chronicle

"What sets Silby's work apart is its absolute command of so many aspects of the Texas controversy and its ability to draw out the long-term implications. Silbey's analysis of the Democratic Party's schism is particularly insightful and interesting. Storm over Texas will well reward anyone interested in this important event on the path to the Civil War."—Nicole Etcheson, Civil War History

From the Publisher