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I am a fan of well-documented books with solid reasoning.  I recommend the following books about early Iowa history, the Underground Rail Road, slavery, causes of the Civil War, reasons for enlisting, and the U.S. Constitution:

Early Iowa History

Robert R. Dykstra, Bright Radical Star:  Black Freedom and White Supremacy on the Hawkeye Frontier (Cambridge, 1993).  This detailed, thoughtful book covers from 1833 (when Iowa Territory was officially open to settlement) to 1880.

Morton M. Rosenberg, Iowa on the Eve of the Civil War:  A Decade of Frontier Politics (Norman, 1972).  Rosenberg discusses 1850s Iowa demographics and politics.

Chandler C. Childs and Robert F. Klein, ed., Dubuque:  Frontier River City (Dubuque, 1984).  This book aptly covers Dubuque’s early history, stretching from 1830 (territorial days) through 1857.  It reminds me that Dubuque Democrats of this period called their city “The Gibraltar of the Iowa Democracy.”

Iowa Underground Railroad

Lowell J. Soike, Necessary Courage:  Iowa’s Underground Railroad in the Struggle Against Slavery (Iowa City, 2013).  This is a good introduction to the Iowa Underground Railroad.  Soike is a veteran UGRR researcher and former director of the Iowa Freedom Trail project.

Bill Silag, Susan Koch-Bridgford, and Hal Chase, eds. Outside In:  African-American History in Iowa, 1838-2000 (Des Moines, 2001).  I especially appreciated chapters two through four, covering Iowa Territorial Census figures, the Underground Rail Road (written by scholar G. Galen Berrier), and African-American legal history, starting with the Iowa Territory.

Slavery

Mark A. Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (Chapel Hill, 2006).  Noll does an excellent job of presenting the biblical texts quoted by abolition-minded ministers, and passages quoted by pro-slavery ministers.  I found the most compelling abolition argument (derived from Scripture) to be more nuanced than the proof-texts cited in support of slavery.  In open debate, crowds in the 1840s and 1850s seemingly had little patience for nuanced arguments.

Eugene D. Genovese, A Consuming Fire:  The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South (Athens, 2009, original ed. 1998).  Genovese offers compelling and reasoned insights into Southern perspectives on slavery.

Causes of the Civil War

David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis:  America before the Civil War, 1848 – 1861 (New York, 2011, original ed. 1976).  As a boy, I enjoyed Bruce Catton’s Civil War trilogy.  As an adult, I appreciate Potter’s profound insights and compelling logic regarding the causes of the war.

Donald E. Reynolds, Editors Make War:  Southern Newspapers in the Secession Crisis (Carbondale, 2006).  Reynolds creates a picture of the changing political face of the South as it headed toward Fort Sumter.  Editors Make War is a well-written combination of quotations and analysis.

Reasons for Enlisting

James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades:  Why Men Fought in the Civil War (Oxford, 1997).  This thoughtful book draws upon the correspondence of many Union and Confederate soldiers.  McPhersons examines reasons why men enlisted and why they continued fighting at different stages of the war.

U.S. Constitution / Civil Liberties

James G. Randall, Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln (New York, 1926).  This thought-provoking book is rich in detail.  It covers a host of topics, ranging from the legal nature of the Civil War to habeas corpus, illegal arrests, martial law, and more.  It was interesting to see how President Abraham Lincoln framed the argument over secession in such a way that readers would conclude that secession was an illegal revolution.

Mark E. Neely Jr., The Fate of Liberty:  Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York, 1991).  Neely records how the Lincoln administration dealt with civil liberties, often trampling on them for various reasons.  He charts how the president quickly responded to new situations, beginning in the earliest days of the war.  Overall, Neely justifies the actions of Lincoln and his administration.  I highly recommend this richly detailed book.

Robert S. Harper, Lincoln and the Press (New York, 1951).  I was interested to read about the opposition press in the North during the Civil War.  Harper paints a picture of the Federal government suppressing many newspapers.  A number of newspapers were barred from the mails, editors were arrested, and in some cases, Union soldiers destroyed printing presses.

What about you?

Have you read any books on these topics that are well-documented and have compelling arguments?  Please leave a comment!

Next Week

Next week, I plan to recommend more books related to the Civil War.  Topics will include Copperheads, Civil War medicine, foreigners in the Confederacy, the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy, and Confederate national identity.