audiobook Wolf by the Ears: The Missouri Crisis; 1819–1821 (Witness to History) by John R. van Van Atta in History

Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Great addition to the scholarship of the Missouri CompromiseBy Freyja VWell written and informative (minus one historical fact error regarding presidential order!). Van Atta places the Missouri Compromise into a broader socio-political context than historians have previously. It sets the stage for the debate in Washington; the north; the south; and the west and spends considerable time discussing how the compromise affected social and political behavior ending; in Van Atta's opinion; inevitably to the Civil War. The only criticisms that I have is that the reader needs to know a fair amount of American History to understand what is going on; and that so many persons are introduced; it can at times be difficult to keep them straight. Diagrams of political affiliations would have been helpful.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Useful IntroductionBy S. SmithThe makers of the US Constitution thought slavery was in decline; so accepted several compromises that protected it. However; cotton growing boomed in the early 19th century; expanding into new southern slave-states and reinvigorating slavery. No longer hoping for its extinction; many northerners now feared its expansion would create a pro-slavery Congressional majority; while southerners wanted protection for this cornerstone of their economy. This is the background to a largely narrative account by John van Atta of the Missouri Crisis and the Compromise that resolved it. He argues that these were a major turning point in US history because the attempt to resolve the political; economic; and social issues affecting the West as well as North and South ended certain political certainties that had existed since the early republic.Previously; the Missouri Crisis was thought to concern only a small elite of national politicians; but van Atta shows it reflected widespread popular concerns. He starts by setting out both the complex background to the political debate and the grievances of ordinary people in all three sections of the United States; particularly in Missouri. He also examines the personalities of several political leaders; as these mattered in the small political elite. He concentrates first on northerners opposed to slavery in Missouri and pro-slavery southerners; who jointly caused the Crisis; then on Henry Clay; the main architect of the Compromise. This was only a short-term solution; but van Atta accepts that Clay other compromisers acted in good faith to avoid a sectional clash. Despite these good points; the book has two weaknesses.Although van Atta gives a clear account of the origins and development of the Crisis and Compromise; he is less sure on later events up to 1854; when it was superceded by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He shows how the Compromise was regarded in North and South in this period but gives too little analysis of growing divisions in this period to add much to the earlier account.The second weakness is the writing style; with many clichés and italicising in case readers misses his point; suggesting dumbing-down. It is also unclear for much of the book what he thinks the Crisis was about. At the start; he suggests that many Americans thought that slavery dominated the concept of nation-building. Although he mentions this theme several times; it is only at the very end he mentions the competing concepts of a grouping of sovereign states or the more modern one of a centralised nation.Van Atta has produced a broad description of the events of 1819 to 1821 and their background based on recent scholarship; emphasising social and economic developments and local events rather than national politics. Despite weaknesses; it is a good single-volume introduction to the Missouri Crisis and Compromise.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Informative and readableBy History ProfGeared toward students and non-specialists; this is a solid introduction to the Missouri Compromise; to the sectional crisis more generally; and to how the West fit into nineteenth-century Americans' competing visions for the nation. It is an engaging narrative that makes for an enjoyable read.