Description:
A sweeping narrative of America's Civil War era, Liberty and Union shows how the war helped to bring about revolutionary changes in American life, changes that were sustained--and limited--by most Americans' abiding commitment to the nation's founding principles.
Brief description:
Timothy S. Huebner is Irma O. Sternberg Professor of History at Rhodes College in Memphis. His books include The Southern Judicial Tradition: State Judges and Sectional Distinctiveness, 1790-1890 and The Taney Court: Justice, Rulings, and Legacy.
Review Quotes:
"One of the best one-volume histories of the Civil War era we are likely to get."--Law and Politics Book Review
"An elegantly written eleven-chapter narrative of epic style marked by deep research and new insight."--American Historical Review
"Huebner is a clear and graceful writer and an engaging storyteller. In short, this book is both an outstanding constitutional history and a superb general history of the Civil War era."--Journal of Southern History
"Huebner's synthesis is a valuable contribution to the field at large, especially in addressing the long-running historical debate over what was possible during Reconstruction."--North Carolina Historical Review
"A masterpiece."--Civil War Book Review
"Huebner has produced a valuable study of American constitutionalism. Gracefully written . . . Huebner's mastery of the material and synthesizing mind keep the book on track from start to finish."--Weekly Standard
"Provides a rich and insightful account that ties the events of antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction America back to questions of slavery and sovereignty left unresolved by the Revolutionary generation. Fluently written and compellingly told, Liberty and Union weds accessibility to expertise."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"Succeeds brilliantly as a cogent, clear analytical synthesis of the Civil War Era."--Virginia Magazine
"Liberty and Union will positively affect Civil War and Constitutional literature. . . . Provides a well-needed glimpse into the ideological foundations of the American Republic and the efforts to satisfactorily reconcile the elusive concepts of democracy, liberty, and sovereignty."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly
"A welcome and satisfying synthesis of the constitutional scholarship of the last half-century that accords the Reconstruction Amendments their proper place as the basis of our modern constitutional order."--Journal of Supreme Court History
"A strength of Huebner's book is its attention to groups often skipped over in more traditional constitutional histories, most essentially, African Americans. Indeed, Huebner seeks to unite what are often distinct historiographic streams: constitutional, military, and African American history."--Choice
"Huebner's writing is smooth and his narrative style makes for easy reading. His discussion of legal enactments and judicial decisions renders them readily understandable for non-lawyers. Huebner skillfully weaves a range of social, cultural and political information into the narrative."--Civil War News
"Provides an overdue reexamination of constitutional and legal developments from the antebellum era through Reconstruction. Huebner focuses on how the conflict revolutionized slavery and sovereignty, two of the most controversial questions of the founding era."--Charlotte News and Observer