Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Bum Rap or Bad Leadership? -- 1. James Buchanan, Dred Scott, and the Whisper of Conspiracy -- 2. Prelude to Armageddon: James Buchanan, Brigham Young, and a President's Initiation to Bloodshed -- 3. General Jackson is Dead: James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, and Kansas Policy -- 4. In Defense of Doughface Diplomacy: A Reevaluation of the Foreign Policy of James Buchanan -- 5. President James Buchanan: Executive Leadership and the Crisis of the Democracy -- 6. The South has been Wronged: James Buchanan and the Secession Crisis -- 7. "In the Midst of a Great Revolution": The Northern Response to the Secession Crisis -- 8. Joseph Holt, James Buchanan, and the Secession Crisis -- 9. A Conversation with William W. Freehling and Michael F. Holt, September 19, 2008 -- Epilogue: Buchanan's Civil War -- List of Contributors -- Index.

As James Buchanan took office in 1857, the United States found itself at a crossroads. Dissolution of the Union had been averted and the Democratic Party maintained control of the federal government, but the nation watched to see if Pennsylvania's first president could make good on his promise to calm sectional tensions. Despite Buchanan's central role in a crucial hour in U.S. history, few presidents have been more ignored by historians. In assembling the essays for this volume, Michael Birkner and John Quist have asked leading scholars to reconsider whether Buchanan's failures stemmed from his own mistakes or from circumstances that no president could have overcome. Buchanan's dealings with Utah shed light on his handling of the secession crisis. His approach to Dred Scott reinforces the image of a president whose doughface views were less a matter of hypocrisy than a thorough identification with southern interests. Essays on the secession crisis provide fodder for debate about the strengths and limitations of presidential authority in an existential moment for the young nation. Although the essays in this collection offer widely differing interpretations of Buchanan's presidency, they all grapple honestly with the complexities of the issues faced by the man who sat in the White House prior to the towering figure of Lincoln, and contribute to a deeper understanding of a turbulent and formative era.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.