William W. Freehling is the Singletary Professor of the Humanities at the University of Kentucky.

"This is a thought-provoking book. Because it contains so many reflections on so many subjects, it should stimulate the reader to ponder some of the issues raised."--Civil War History

"The eleven essays in this collection summarize the best work and most provocative insights of a leading historian of the Old South on the role of slavery in the coming of the Civil War....These essays command our attention for their historiographical sophistication and their challenging reformation of the centrality of slavery in shaping Amerian history from the Revolution through the Civil War."--Georgia Historical Quarterly

"William W. Freehling is one of the leading chroniclers of the antebellum period today."--Southern Partisan

"There is much food for thought here! Anybody interested in American history in the 19th Century in general and the causes of the Civil War in particular will find this collection of essays a fascinating and enjoyable read."--The Civil War News

"William Freehling has things to say, now said more clearly, about the coming of the Civil War that are as trenchant as anything written in recent years."--^{he Times Literary Supplement}

"In this book, Freehling has produced a series of well thought-out and well-written essays....This is a book that will cause its readers to rethink their attitudes about historical writing in general and about early American history more specifically."--History

"This is an outstanding contribution by a truly rare and remarkable scholar. These essasys are fresh, critical, and often profound. Freehling's prose is captivating."--Kenneth M. Startip, Williams Baptist College

"Excellent book, cogently argued with fresh insights on the crisis of the South."--Arthur L. Johnson, SUNY Potsdam

"A refreshingly self-reflective attitude toward scholarly efforts to integrate multicultural concerns with traditional interest in political events."--Library Journal

"This book is an unusual and fine work which argues with both history and historians in a manner refreshing to both student and instructor. It challenges both doubter and disciple of his arguments."--Dr. Jack J. Cardoso, Buffalo State College, SUNY

"Freehling offers a thoughtful collection of essays--some new, some thoroughly revised--reflecting 30 years of thoughts on the nature of slavery and the causes of the Civil War...Although slavery remains difficult to understand on any but an abstract level, it is to Freehling's great credit that he has offered an immensely readable explanation of the forces that created--and ultimately made impossible--what the slaveholders chose to describe simply as the 'Peculiar Institution.'"--Publishers Weekly

"In his most impressive essay, Freehling tracks the growing antebellum ambiguities of the founding fathers toward slavery as embedded in the Constitution. Perhaps his greatest contribution is his encouraging, by example, the reintegration of history by fusing the social, political, and military history of the war."--Michael Lawrence Renshaw, The Citadel