Slavery, Capitalism and Politics in the Antebellum Republic: Volume 2, The Coming of the Civil War, 1850-1861

John Ashworth was born in Lancashire, England, and studied at the Universities of Lancaster and Oxford. He is currently Professor of American History in the School of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham. Professor Ashworth is the author of 'Agrarians' and 'Aristocrats': Party Political Ideology in the United States, 1837-1846, of Slavery, Capitalism and Politics in the Antebellum Republic: Volume 1: Commerce and Compromise, 1820-1850 (both of which were published by Cambridge University Press), and of numerous articles and reviews in learned journals.

"John Ashworth’s explanation of the coming of the Civil War is intellectually attractive, structurally elaborate, and inadequately elaborated for so ambitious a book." -Lawrence T. McDonnell, The Journal of American History

• Part I. Slavery versus Antislavery: 1. Combating the weaknesses of slavery: Southern militants, 1850–1861; 2. The antislavery challenge: the Republicans, 1854–1861; Part II. Polarisation and Collapse: 3. The disintegration of democratic hegemony: northern and national Democrats, 1850–1861; 4. Political realignment: collapse of the Whigs and neo-Whigs, 1848–1861; Conclusion: explaining the Civil War (II).