Table of Contents

1: A Savage Place: The Mississippi Frontier, Masculinity, and Political Culture in the 1830s
2: Early Autumn: An Episode from Mississippi's Political Culture: The Secession Crisis of 1849-51
3: Mortal Stakes: The Politics of Antipartyism
4: Small Vices: Voters, Elections, and the Myth of Party Domination
5: Playmates: Voting and Governing in the Neighborhood
6: Ceremony: The Ritual Power of Politics
7: Chance: Know Nothings and the Political Culture
8: Valediction: The Political Culture of Secession
Appendix
Notes

About the Author

Christopher J. Olsen is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana State University.

Reviews

"Olsen establishes his case through meticulous combing of voter records. Olsen achieves a much finer level of analysis than often seen with voting returns. The statistical material is nicely balanced with literary and anecdotal evidence, ensuring that the stories of real people are never obscured. Those interested in the mechanics of the second party system or the coming of secession with find it an important book."--The Journal of Southern History
"Olsen crafts the most thoroughly situated linkage of honor and secession yet to appear in print...[T]he best case study to date of the cultural context that stifled sectional moderation and put the nation on the high road to civil war."--Journal of the Early Republic
"Well researched and carefully crafted...[M]erits the attention of historians of the late national period, particularly those interested in the South, Mississippi particularly, and the sectional crisis."--Georgia Historical Quarterly
"An excellent book on both the culture of southern secession and the persistance of antiparty values in mid-nineteenth century America. What [he] says about local political culture should command the attention of political historians for some time to come."--The North Carolina Historical Review
"This analysis is a useful addition to the growing corpus reinterpreting the mind and spirit of the antebellum South."--CHOICE