The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War

In the years preceding the Civil War, The American Whig Party was involvedat every level of American politics and controlled the White House for twelve ofthe twenty-two years it existed. Its members included Henry Clay, DanielWebster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln. Now, Michael F. Holtgives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written. He offers apanoramic account of the tumultuous Antebellum period, a time when a flurry ofparties (Democratic, Anti-Mason, Know Nothing, Free Soil, Republican) and largerthan life politicians--Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, MartinVan Buren, and Henry Clay--struggled to control the national agenda as the U.S.inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionatelyinvolved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and whenmomentous political events--like the Nullification Controversy, the Annexationof Texas, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act--rocked the country. Holt captures all ofthis as he shows that, amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Partycontinuously strove to unite North and South and emerged as the nation's lastgreat hope to prevent secession.

Michael F. Holt is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History and Chair of the History Department at the University of Virginia.