Description: It shows how Americans grappled with the issues of nationalism, sectionalism, and the meaning of union itself--issues that still resonate today.
Brief description: Christopher Childers is an assistant professor of history at Pittsburg State University. He is the author of The Failure of Popular Sovereignty: Slavery, Manifest Destiny, and the Radicalization of Southern Politics and the coauthor of The American South: A History.
Review Quotes: In The Webster-Hayne Debate, Christopher Childers examines the context of the debate between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and his Senate colleague Robert S. Hayne of South Carolina in January 1830 . . . Readers will finish the book with a clear idea of the reason Webster's "Reply" became so influential in its own day. They will also better understand the debate's political context.
--Asaf Almog, University of Virginia, Western Historical Quarterly