The Growth and Collapse of One American Nation: The Early Republic 1790 - 1861

Our identity as one nation is fragile today, much as it was when the Civil War erupted in 1861. Lincoln, in closing his first inaugural address, warned: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” But too often in our time, we view those we disagree with as enemies, as members of a different nation. That was the challenge our ancestors faced too, and they allowed their differences to devolve into a civil war. Perhaps that struggle was inevitable, since the overriding moral issue o