At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise That Saved the Union
Books / Hardcover
Books › History › Social History
ISBN: 0465012884 / Publisher: Basic Books, May 2010
Recounts the events surrounding the Compromise of 1850 and the part Henry Clay played in its passage by Congress.
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"Superb history, thoroughly researched and written in a lively and engaging style. It is what historians like to call `definitive' work."---The Washington Post"An exceptional book that combines impressive scholarship with a riveting narrative."---New York Times Book Review"Vividly written and often harrowing."---Chicago Tribune"This is a superb biography, one that will surely secure Remini's already established reputation as one of this country's preeminent historians of the Age of Jackson."---The Washington PostIn 1850, America hovered on the brink of disunion. Tensions between slaveholders and abolitionists mounted, as the debate over slavery grew rancourous, The addition of vast new territory in the wake of the Mexican war had prompted Northern politicians to demand that new states remain free; in response, Southerners baldly threatened to secede from the Union. Only Henry Clay, America's Great Compromiser, could keep the union together.In At the Edge of the Precipice, prize-winning historian Robert V. Remini offers a fascinating recounting of the Compromise of 1850, a titanic act of political will that only a skillful statesman like Clay could broker. Although the Compromise would collapse ten years later when the nation plunged into civil war, Clay's victory in 1850 ultimately gave the North much-needed time to build its industrial might so that it could defeat the South once secession was at hand. It also gave the North time to find a leader, Abraham Lincoln, who had the capacity and resolve to successfully reunite the country.A masterful narrative by a major historian, At the Edge of the Precipice is a portrait of political leadership at its finest and a timely reminder of the importance of bipartisanship in a bellicose age.
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