Causes of the Civil War Audiobook By Philip Leigh cover art

Causes of the Civil War

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Causes of the Civil War

By: Philip Leigh
Narrated by: George Bagby
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

The dominant narrative about the causes of the Civil War is the work of historians obsessed with social activism instead of history.

They point to the 13th, 14th, and 15th postbellum amendments as proof that the North was ultimately fighting to provide slaves with honorable freedom, but deny that the increase in tariffs on dutiable items from 19 percent before the war to an average of 45 percent for 50 years thereafter reflected a Northern war aim.

They hold Southern secession responsible for the war, but fail to teach that the Northeastern states threatened to secede five times between 1789 and 1850. They also decline to note that Southern secession need not have led to war. Southerners had no purpose to overthrow the Washington government; they merely wanted a government of their own. Northerners could have evacuated Fort Sumter and let the first seven cotton-states depart in peace, thereby avoiding the war.

Modern historians normally focus on the reasons the cotton-states seceded, instead of examining the economic reasons Northerners chose to militarily coerce them back into the Union, thereby inaugurating civil war.

The Republican party could have stopped the spread of slavery peacefully by endorsing popular sovereignty during the presidential election of 1860. After Kansas used it to reject slavery in an local-option vote in 1858, nearly every politico realized that the doctrine would quarantine slavery in the South. If popular sovereignty could not make a slave state out of Kansas, it could not do it to any of the remaining federal territories of 1860. Republicans rejected the doctrine simply to survive as an independent party because Lincoln’s main two opposing presidential candidates supported it. Beyond what poplar sovereignty would have gained, the Republican blanket-ban on slaves in the territories added nothing except to inflame the sectional passions that led to civil war.

©2020 Philip Leigh (P)2021 Shotwell Publishing LLC
American Civil War War Civil War Military Kansas
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Causes of the Civil War

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing book

Once again Mr. Leigh delivers a book that educates the reader on our more nuanced civil war history from the southern point of view.Can’t wait to read another.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!