[.ca] Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of ... (ISBN 0679768823)

From Amazon.com:
Maury Klein's knack for words shows up on the first page of this book: "How could the oldest, deadliest, most divisive conflict of a proud nation come down, after decades of bitter strife, to a dispute over an insignificant fort squatting on a hunk of rock in the harbor of the South's oldest and most defiant city?" Klein, a history professor at the University of Rhode Island, goes on to answer this question in lively prose. The Fort Sumter saga, of course, has been told well by others, but Klein makes the tale worth reading again.

Wonderful Chronicle of United States Falling Into Civil War:
Maury Klien is a very good storyteller and thorough historian. Combining both of these skills often seems difficult in some popular histories, but when it works it produces a highly readable and insightful understanding of the past. Klien tells the story of the Union's slide into the abyss of Civil War - with most of the focus on the period between Lincoln's election and the firing on Ft. Sumter. Using many first-person accounts, he gives an immediacy and presence to this tale that helps the reader feel he is there as the great decisions, positions and vaccilations are taken during this critical period. Days of Defiance reminds the reader that the Civil War was perhaps an irrepressable conflict. Despite attempts to conciliate and compromise, the Republicans in the North would not brook the extension of slavery. The South saw the North's hostitity to the spread of the institution and the loss of it's hold on the national government as threatening to the slave based economy in the states where it was legal. Although many tried to find a middle path, the sectional interests were too diametricly opposed to ward off war. The focus of the book are the events during the twilight of the Buchanan Administration, the struggle in Congress to do something that could produce a compromise and the efforts of South Carolina to dissolve the Union. The Buchanan Administration, reflecting the political base and culture of the President, was amazing in its inability to produce a policy that would at least address the growing crisis. The president elect, waiting for four months to assume office after his election, had to balance the act of satisfying factions of the Republican Party in putting together the first Republican Administration with the need to adopt a posture that did not accelerate a crisis brought to its head by his election. In trying not to accelerate the crisis before he could claim the reins of the government, he also had to maintain his positions regarding the spread of slavery and unlawfulness of secession -- positions that had garnered him his victory and the support of the North. The portraits of the president and the president-elect and their minions are fascinating. Lincoln's genious for leadership shows through some early trials and mistakes as he assumes his first administrative office. Buchanan's lack of support, reliance on friends who did not have the Administration's best interests at heart and personal unwillingness to adopt any policy helped create a vacuum that South Carolinian seccessionists gladly filled. Buchanan's secretaries -- particularly Floyd of the War department-- exhibited loyalty to their factions that in some cases could best be described as treasonous. Lincoln needed to pull men into his cabinet who in three or four cases thought themselves superior to the president-elect and saw themselves as "managing" the new leader, while setting the tone and discipline necessary to ensure that the Lincoln Administration would be run by Lincoln and not Chase or Seward or Cameron. At the middle of this story stands Maj. Anderson and the garrison at Ft. Sumter. It's presence in rebellious So. Carolina's Charleston Harbor was the focal point to this irrespresible conflict. Although frequently cut off from the decision makers in both the Buchanan and Lincoln Administrations, the decisions made by Maj. Anderson forced the chain of events that led to the bombardment of the fort and the start of our Civil War. This is a fascinating story well told by Klein.

Six Fateful Months:
Maury Klein in Days of Defiance (Sumter, Secession, and the Civil War) recounts the heady days in the North and the South between the time of Lincoln's victory in the election and the surrender of Fort Sumter. Not knowing too much about the Civil War, this seemed a good place to begin. The material was presented along with a good introduction to the issues behind this collision of two cultures in one country, beginning at the time of the nullification crisis. Many voices are heard throughout this story, mostly politicians, though, as these fateful six months were a political struggle. Occasionally the inactivity of the participants as they play a waiting game can transfer over to impatience to the reader but this is, otherwise, quite an exciting account for readers interested in looking at the small and large beginnings of a great and horrific event. This piece of historical writing is well researched and well put together.

History that Reads Like a Novel:
Maury Klein has done an outstanding job of making the roll up to the Civil War pop off the pages. From the dour last days of the Buchanan administration to the careful balancing of public and private interests by Lincoln, all set against the backdrop of moves by secessionists in South Carolina, Florida and D.C., Klein covers the steps and missteps that might have headed off the war in a manner. This is a fantastic work, written with the critical eye of a historian, but influenced by the wit and timing of a novelist.

Great insight into crucial last antebellum months:
This book illuminates the complexities involved in the apparently inevitable movement toward war between the election of Lincoln and the firing on Fort Sumter. It provides insights into the difficult decisions facing Lincoln, Buchanan and other key players.

An Excellent Study of What Almost Happened:
Almost every literate American is acquainted with the basics of the coming of the War Between the States in the form of Lincoln's election and the firing on Ft. Sumter. Most Civil War students are also acquainted with the military sequence of events of the siege and surrender, followed by Lincoln's call for volunteers to invade the Confederacy and the resulting general hostilities. As far as I know, however, very few lay students of the War have much appreciation for the wide variety of political views on relations between the states at the time, on the possible approaches to the slavery situation (including proposals to guarantee protection for the institution made by some surprising individuals), on the subtle constitutional and other legal aspects of secession, and the actual process by which South Carolina's secession spread to ten other states, some of which were quite reluctant to do so initially. Prof. Klein sets all of this out in a very readable, fast moving text which is guaranteed to hold the reader's interest and attention. From my standpoint, the most interesting aspects involved the (ultimately unsuccessful) attempts by some of the most unlikely individuals to pull the situation back from the brink, and the cynicism of others who are often described in more altruistic and one dimensional terms. At many junctures in Klein's book the reader will get the irresistable urge to play "what if." I "read" this book by a rented audio tape edition during some day long vacation drives and I was extremely pleased with it, in a way that is often not true with well researched histories. The other reviewers who have described this as comparable to a mystery or other novel are not far off the mark and I recommend it very highly.