ELIZABETH R. VARON is professor of history at Temple University. She is author of We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (from the University of North Carolina Press).
[A] very important book. . . . Well-written and carefully
documented and will be imminently useful to undergraduate and
graduate classrooms alike.--The Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography
A broad study. . . . Strong both in illuminating operative gender
and racial perspectives and in presenting in some detail the views
and methods of presentation and activism of many figures who will
be unfamiliar even to most American historians, but who, as this
book demonstrates, should not be ignored.--Reviews in American
History
A cogently reasoned intellectual history of a frequently
misunderstood historical term. . . . Varon successfully weaves
together political debates, contemporary journalism, literary
fiction and nonfiction, sermons from pulpits of the nation's
leading churches and other sources of popular culture.--Civil War
Times
A compelling argument about the political significance of language.
. . Speaks to specialists and remains approachable for
undergraduates, scholars in other fields, and general
readers.--Common-Place
Highly engaging. . . . Makes good use of recent historical
literature to produce a synthetic and balanced account of the
politics of disunion in the American republic.--Civil War Book
Review
Highly readable political, social, and intellectual history at its
best. . . . Highly recommended.--Choice
In scope, authority, and lucidity, this book . . . deserves to be
ranked alongside some of the landmark studies of Civil War
causation. . . . As good an account of the worldview of antebellum
Americans as one can read.--H-Civil War
Installs [the premise of disunion] by weaving the country's
beginnings with the immediate, and profound, philosophical
differences that existed between the agrarian, slaveholding South
and the industrialized North.--The Anniston Star
Varon fulfills her goal of distinguishing disunion from secession
and exploring the multifaceted meanings of the term. . . . She
eminently succeeds in showing how disunion evolved from a
'prophecy' that no one wanted fulfilled to the fire-eaters'
'program.'--American Historical Review
Varon's success in setting her analysis of disunion rhetoric
against a comprehensive historiographical backdrop is exceptional.
Meticulously researched and beautifully assembled, Disunion will
become a standard text for students and scholars interested in this
tumultuous chapter in American history.--North & South
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