Why did the South secede? Why did secession lead to war? For a half century the northern, free states coexisted politically in the same nation with southern, slaveholding states. Why and how did that national structure fall apart in the 1850s? Was this breakdown inevitable, or could wiser political leadership have prevented it? Why did the election of Abraham Lincoln as president precipitate the secession of seven lower-South states? Why did both sides prefer war to compromise? Could this terrible war have been avoided? Could the positive results of the war (Union and freedom) have been achieved without war? James McPherson is George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History at Princeton University, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era," "Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution," "Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam," and "For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War."

Author:  James M PcPherson

Duration: 01:57:57

Published: 2007-05-09

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