I do have to hand it to Robert Merry, in his choice of subjects for his works of popular history. He doesn’t go for the low-hanging fruit of marquee names, instead opting to introduce his readers to lesser-known figures in his "President McKinley: Architect of the American Century" and "A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, The Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent." In this, his newest book, he introduces readers to a large group of even lesser-known characters in his effort to tell the story of the entire decade-plus leading up to the Civil War.

His premise is that South Carolina and Massachusetts represented the main agitators on opposite sides of the road to disunion. His storytelling approach is decidedly character-driven. These are what make his book stand out among many others that have covered this well-trodden ground. But there’s so much ground to cover, that it becomes difficult to keep up with the ever-growing cast of characters. And it becomes even more difficult for Merry to sustain the premise that South Carolina’s secessionism and Massachusetts’ abolitionism were the primary provocateurs in the deepening North-South divide, when there were so many other factors at play.

The book gets off to a promising start, juxtaposing Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster and South Carolina Senator John Calhoun and their contrasting views in the debates leading up to the contentious Compromise of 1850. Of course, Henry Clay must also be mentioned here, but he sticks out somewhat as the third wheel of this Great Triumvirate, foreshadowing many more non-Massachusetts, non-South Carolina third wheels to come in what is meant to be a Massachusetts- and South Carolina-focused narrative.

As the Triumvirate fades from the scene, the next generation of political leaders who began to turn away from compromise is introduced, including Massachusetts’ Charles Sumner and Charles Francis Adams, and South Carolina’s Robert Barnwell Rhett, James Henry Hammond and Andrew Pickens Butler. While at first it can be difficult for a layman to distinguish who’s who among some of these names, who’s important, and why, in time Merry allows us to get to know them all as individuals, as he covers everything from the dramatically-described caning of Sumner and his long road to recovery, to Rhett’s evolution from undistinguished Senator to firebrand newspaperman, to Hammond’s troubled personal life and sexual deviancy.

The majority of the narrative, however, is not personal, but political. While Merry is an excellent writer and his narrative is easy to follow, it’s difficult to make legislative debates particularly riveting.

It’s also difficult to keep the focus on the book’s two titular states. Covering the decade or so leading up to the Civil War means covering the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, John Brown’s raid, the election of 1860, the rise of newly-prominent political figures like Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, and the entirety of the Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan administrations. Any prominence that Massachusetts and South Carolina are meant to be assigned gets buried under the weight of everything and everyone else that needs to be covered, and the narrative begins to feel very familiar to anyone who may have read other recent books like Elizabeth Varon’s "Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859" or Sidney Blumenthal’s "Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. II, 1849-1856" and "All the Powers of Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. III, 1856-1860."

Merry, though, seems content to keep his focus on the political, without delving too deeply into the cultural, economic and demographic reasons for why exactly antislavery sentiment became so strong in the North, why the South was increasingly willing to secede to protect the institution, and why compromise was progressively rejected by both sides.

Toward the end of the book, Merry begins to zero in on South Carolina’s Rhett, the Fire-Eater newspaperman, and his abolitionist Massachusetts counterpart William Lloyd Garrison, as the leading Southern and Northern voices on opposite extremes of the growing divide. But the story by this point has long since gotten away from its Massachusetts and South Carolina focus.

The emphasis on personalities, and on the outsized importance of two states, is what promised to make this book unique among others that have covered the same time period. But too much of the book strays from those focuses, so it ends up reading like a well-written textbook of the era, without thoughtful analysis or a greater point to make. I came away knowing more about some individuals I didn’t know much about, and got a refresher on a lot of facts and events about which I’ve previously read, but I can’t say I gained any great new insights from Merry’s take on this tumultuous time. As a book that attempted to reframe the era as a struggle personified by political leaders in two key states, I don’t think it fully succeeded. If, however, you approach the book as a personality-driven refresher to what you've read before or what you learned in school, and set the Massachusetts/South Carolina divide aside, I think you’d find some value here, as another of Merry’s imperfect but readable histories of consequential times.

What caused the Civil War in the United States? Most of us learned in school it was slavery, and that is correct. But what were the circumstances that led to the War between the States? If you are interested in history and want to know more, Decade of Disunion by Robert W. Merry will give you a detailed timeline of the key events that occurred between 1850-1860 that forever changed the United States.

This is a rich, detailed volume without any bias towards either side. Merry is an excellent historian, and his writing almost reads like a work of fiction. The disunion was simmering for a long time in both the South and the North.

Merry introduces the reader to many political statemen of the area, some well-known, others lost to history. The book begins with the final years of three of the leaders in the Senate, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and John Calhoun. After these leaders passed away new leaders emerged, some bent on Southern succession, others trying to hold the Union together. Of course, well known people of history are prominent in the book as well: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis. We also learn of others who played a formidable role in the time period that were not politicians like the abolitionist John Brown.

We also learn about many pivotal events that transpired during the decade of disunion. The Missouri Compromise and its eventual demise, the Dred Scott decision, the Kansas-Nebraska, Act, the siege of Fort Sumpter, and the eventual nominations of Lincoln and Douglas by the two principal parties for President (there were actually four candidates for President in total).

The book offers a lot of information, and is highly recommended if you want to know more about the events leading to the Civil War.

I want to thank the author, publisher and NetGallery for providing an ARC of this new book. I attest my review is my own unbiased work.