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Review
| The Antebellum Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1820 to 1860, by David A. Copeland. "Debating Historical Issues in the Media of the Time" series. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. 440 pages with photos. $65.00, cloth.
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| In 1825 the Virginian David Roper, proposing a new newspaper for Richmond, argued that "A thirst for newspaper reading prevails among all ranks of society throughout our country." Indeed, the antebellum period witnessed a veritable explosion of print of all kinds, including partisan and reform-oriented newspapers, general and special interest magazines, and new "penny papers" that reached a broad audience and profoundly shaped American journalism. Using these printed sources, David A. Copeland has assembled a collection of documents on the major historical controversies of the antebellum era that will prove useful to students and scholars interested in the contested politics of this period. After an introduction that relates the history of print to developments in antebellum culture and society, the book uses these documents to present debates on twenty-nine issues of importance. These issues, arranged chronologically, run from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. They include virtually all of the major topics one would expect to encounter in an upper-division course on the period—Jacksonian politics, the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War, abolitionism and women's rights, Indian removal, the Gold Rush, and the sectional crises of the 1850s that ultimately led to the Civil War. Of particular note is Copeland's inclusion of material on Joseph Smith and the Mormons, the reception of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and debates over the merits of the penny press itself. These topics help push the collection slightly beyond its largely political frame, introducing students to some of the many aspects of American cultural history that also profoundly shaped the period. Each of these twenty-nine chapters begins with an introduction that contextualizes the topic and previews the primary documents. In addition, each selection from a newspaper or periodical is briefly introduced, which is quite helpful, given that many of them have had to be substantially edited down from much longer originals. After presenting the texts supporting and opposing a given issue, Copeland provides a set of further readings. |
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Readers will find that Copeland's selections of primary documents can frequently expand their knowledge about these largely well-known topics. However, in a few instances the text is somewhat hampered by its very premise that these issues were "debated," because as it forces the documents into artificial pro and con arguments that are occasionally too stark. Opposing viewpoints may work fine when one is dealing with "Support for Indian Removal" and "Opposition to Indian Removal." Yet this system tends to elide much of the ambiguity around historical events, something perhaps most noticeable in the chapter on Nat Turner and slave insurrections. Overall, however, students, scholars, and general readers will find this cogently edited collection both engaging and instructive. |
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| California State University, Long Beach |
Brett Mizelle |
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