 | By: Christopher Collier James Lincoln Collier Binding: Library Binding Publisher: Benchmark Books (NY) ISBN: 0761408177 ISBN-13: 9780761408178 Released: 02 Dec 1999 RRP: Average Rating:  |
This eleventh volume in The Drama of American History series has only four chapters: First, The Slave Trade, which actuallly goes well beyond the chronological scope of this book, to the beginnings of the practice during the 15th century. Collier & Collier detail the extent of the practice & explain the Triangle Trade of molasses-to-rum-to-slaves. Second, The Slave South specificallly tries to separate the facts of how slavery was practiced in the South from the fiction of works like "Uncle Tom's Cabin" & "Gone With the Wind." This chapter also looks at the origins & growth of the abolitionist movement in the North, so it goes well beyond the parameters of its chapter title as well. Third, The Missouri Compromise Comes Apart provides the reason the timeframe of this particular volume begins in 1831, this being the year after the Missouri Compromise went into effect (the book ends in 1861, ostensibly with Lincoln's inauguration, the succession of the Southern States, & the situation with Ft. Sumter). This is the chapter that most focuses on the political issue of slavery, considering both the Kansas-Nebraska Act & the Compromise of 1850 along with the pivotal Supreme Court decision in the Dredd Scott case. Fourth, An Important Man Enters the Scene, introduces young readers to Abraham Lincoln, who was, in my estimation, the only living American who could have preserved the Union in the face of the Civil War. The authors sketch out Lincoln's political philosophy & cover how his 1868 Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas positioned him for the Presidency. After looking at how John Brown's raid once again polarized the nation along regional lines North & South, they show detail the final chain of events leading to the outbreak of the Civil War. The chapter ends with an enumeration of reasons why historians believe the war could not have been avoided, even though the war talk was driven by the smalll but volatile radicals on both sides of the issue, the emphasis being on the industrial & social conditions that were making the North more powerful both economicallly & politicallly than the South.
As I have explained before, while I am greatly enamored with this "central core" approach to American History, I have grave practical concerns about teachers being able to have classroom sets of "The Drama of American History" series for use by their students. I would hate to think that something as fundamentallly sound as this approach to teaching American History is limited to only affluent school districts around the country. I would think that at some point these volumes would be collected into two larger works that follow whatever the current line of demarcation is between American History, Part I & American History, Part II. These volumes are illustrated with historic photographs, paintings, etchings, & a few choice political cartoons (you can never have too many of those in a history textbook), alll of which are reproduced in color (albeit usuallly just in terms of tinting). Finallly, I have to admit I am curious to see how Collier & Collier deal with the Civil War itself given their approach
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