Agriculture and the Civil War (review)

a primary contribution of the study. It was more than coincidence that nullification followed closely on the heels of Garrison's publication of the Liberator and the Nat Turner revolt in Virginia. South Carolina's prominence and leadership in the antebellum South gives this study a wider relevance; although the state's situation was in many respects unique in the South, South Carolinians were nevertheless articulating fears that were felt in varying degrees throughout the section. Attitudes that evolved in the Palmetto State during these crisis years were the same that came to fruition in 1860-1861 (although the book's title, Prelude to Civil War, may be overstating the case a bit) . Lesser-known personalities in the nullification controversy are brought to light and older ones are seen in new perspective. John C. Calhoun, always regarded as the prime mover of nullification, is convincingly portrayed as devoted to both the South and the Union, trying desperately to save both. Lagging behind the fire-eaters, he was reluctant to push nullification to its logical end—secession—and during the crisis, Freehling suggests , he was "almost paralyzed by conflicting loyalties to nation and section." The author accepts, with some reservation, the view of Charles G. Sellers that southern guilt feelings about slavery constituted an important basis for southern actions in the antebellum years. In over-reacting to the growth of northern abolitionism (which at the time posed little real threat to the South) and in magnifying its real importance, the South in effect created its own crisis and inadvertently served to stimulate the antislavery movement. In all of this, nullification played a key role. This book is based on painstaking and thorough research in manuscript collections, as well as contemporary pamphlets and publications, and is a model of documentation. The author's style is lucid and compact, thoughtful and analytical. Awarded the Allan Nevins Prize of the Society of American Historians, this study merits the full and serious consideration of all who seek to understand the course of the South during the first half of the nineteenth century. Robert W. Johannsen University of Illinois Agriculture and the Civil War. By Paul W. Gates. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965. Pp. x, 383. $8.95.) Even though the Civil War period has attracted more than its fair share of scholarly authors, very little has been written about certain social and economic phases. Agriculture is one of these. For this reason historians who have had to roam far and wide for information on this subject wiU be more than gratified with Paul Gates's Agriculture and the Civil War. It will satisfy a long felt need. Gates, in the process of writing this study, which is broader than agri75 76CIVIL WAR HISTORY culture itself, has combed depositories in both sections of the country. He has dug into local newspapers, government documents, basic secondary works, the latest findings of scholars, diaries, agricultural reports, and other sources. Taking into account the writings of earlier authors, such as L. C. Gray, P. W. Bidwell, and J. C. Falconer, who have written about agriculture from colonial times until 1860, Gates has made it possible to bring the history of the subject down to the reconstruction era. The organization is traditional and well balanced. One section deals with the agriculture of the South, another with that of the North, and a third with the activities of the United States government during these tragic years. The account of agriculture in the South is rich in local detail. Attention is focused on the difficulties of the Confederacy in trying to get the farmers to shift their production from cotton to foodstuffs and the eventual resort to legislative curbs that brought few results. Food problems created by border-state whites who were driven into the deep South by the invading armies aggravated matters. Some progress was made by the end of 1862 in converting the plantation economy of the South into a self-sufficient one; but there were too many problems to overcome—one of them being the blockade. The chapters on corn and its relative importance to the South, shortages and inflation, the pressures of the southern economy, and "the...