The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
合衆国建国前夜から南北戦争へ至るまでの逃亡奴隷と法制度の関係をたどり、奴隷制が国家形成に組み込まれていたことを明らかにする歴史書。政治史と人間の移動が結びついて見えてくる。
作品情報
逃亡奴隷の歴史から、国家の矛盾を読み直す。
逃亡奴隷の追跡とその周辺の法的・政治的対立をたどりながら、自由と国家の矛盾を描く。豊富な史料を背景に、アメリカの分断の起点を大きく見渡す。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Penguin Press
- 発売日
- 2018-11-06
- ページ数
- 464ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 16.33 x 3.48 x 24.28 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781594204050
- ISBN-10
- 1594204055
- 価格
- 5403 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/History/Americas/United States/19th Century
"Excellent...stunning."—Ta-Nehisi Coates The devastating story of how fugitive slaves drove the nation to Civil War A New York Times Notable Book Selection * Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize* Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award * A New York Times Critics' Best Book For decades after its founding, America was really two nations--one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights at all. By awakening northerners to the true nature of slavery, and by enraging southerners who demanded the return of their human "property," fugitive slaves forced the nation to confront the truth about itself. By 1850, with America on the verge of collapse, Congress reached what it hoped was a solution-- the notorious Compromise of 1850, which required that fugitive slaves be returned to their masters. Like so many political compromises before and since, it was a deal by which white Americans tried to advance their interests at the expense of black Americans. Yet the Fugitive Slave Act, intended to preserve the Union, in fact set the nation on the path to civil war. It divided not only the American nation, but also the hearts and minds of Americans who struggled with the timeless problem of when to submit to an unjust law and when to resist. The fugitive slave story illuminates what brought us to war with ourselves and the terrible legacies of slavery that are with us still.
Andrew Delbanco is the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University. Author of many notable books, including College, Melville, The Death of Satan, Required Reading, The Real American Dream, and The Puritan Ordeal, he was recently appointed president of the Teagle Foundation, which supports liberal education for college students of all backgrounds. Winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2001, Andrew Delbanco was named by Time as "America's Best Social Critic." In 2012, President Barack Obama presented him with the National Humanities Medal.
レビュー
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This is very readable, excellent book on the first half of the 19th century leading up to the Civil War. The focus is on the failed effort of the founders of the country, many of whom were slave owners themselves, to reconcile slavery with the enlightenment ideas of democracy and equality of men. The consequence of this failure was the problem of the union of slave states vs "free" states. Naturally, slaves (fugitives) tried constantly to flee to "free" states, leading to many attempts over the years, through legislation and other efforts to resolve the issue of what to do with "property" worth money, like a cow or horse, that became worthless in a "free" state. Things became steadily worse when new territories wanted to join the Union. Would they be slave states or free? The partisanship, vitriol, and total inability of congress to compromise in any way over time led to the Civil War. Which in hindsight created slavery under other names. Today more than 240 years later we are still dealing with slavery. Now we call it racism. Now we don't have chains and slave markets but they are there, invisible. This country will always have a race problem because the founders and many others throughout history did not believe in racial equality and never will. The founders left us with a flawed constitution because they kicked the can of slavery down the road. They wanted a Union of 13 states free of British rule. They were in denial and some believed slavery would just go away later on its own. While they were having esoteric conversations about democracy and freedom, some, like Thomas Jeffferson and James Madison, went home to their lavish estates maintained by slaves. We are dealing with a flawed country as a result. Wonder why our government functions so poorly now? Just read some history.
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An excellent book. It gives an illuminating insight to the effect of the Fugitive Slave Act and how it was a mainspring for the origin of the Civil War. One wonders what the South hoped to expect from secession as if it had been successful slaves would have headed north in even greater numbers.
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This should be required reading for high school students. This book was very informative and cover so much history. There wasn’t anything new here but was written very well. Get it, read it. 5 Stars
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Andrew Delbanco has created an absolute master class of surgical and accurate precision in describing how the abhorrent practice of slavery began in the American Colonies and was later preserved by a concession from northern states to southern states demanding protection of continuing the immoral and unjust practice of slavery unabated in their states (i.e. the fugitive slave act written into the Constitution) for them to agree to join the United States. As we know, the compromise wouldn’t last and Civil War would result. This is a must read for anyone interested in learning the “original sin” of how America became the United States.
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This is a brilliant book. It's odd, though. Every once in a while the writing quality lags with impossible to understand sentences. Fortunately, this is rare because the book in general reads well and thoughtfully discusses an important issue.
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