Dangerous Ground - Squatters, Statesmen, and the Antebellum Rupture of American Democracy

Dangerous Ground examines how white squatters in the American West came to occupy a central and destabilizing position in US political culture in the decades culminating in the Civil War.

List of contents

• Acknowledgments


• Introduction: A Tale of Two Squatters


• Ch. 1. Squatter Democracy


• Ch. 2. Bad Birds


• Ch. 3. Crockett, Hard Cider, and the Whigs' Rustic Turn


• Ch. 4. "Great American Measures" and the Election of 1844


• Ch. 5. Manufacturing Destiny


• Ch. 6. Sacramento's Squatter Riot and the Aftershocks of Manifest Destiny


• Ch. 7. A Squatter's-Eye View of Bleeding Kansas


• Ch. 8. Squatterdom


• Ch. 9. The Ordeal of the Squatter King


• Epilogue: George Bush's America


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

About the author

John Suval is a Research Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, serving as an Assistant Editor of The Papers of Andrew Jackson.

Summary

Dangerous Ground examines how white squatters in the American West came to occupy a central and destabilizing position in US political culture in the decades culminating in the Civil War.

Additional text

Suval has written an important and engaging book that makes a strong case for the need to follow the paths of squatters to understand the political divisions over western territory, first over control and ownership of public land and then over the fate of slavery in the West.

Product details

• Authors: John Suval, John (Research Assistant Professor of Histo Suval, John (Research Assistant Professor of History and Assistant Editor Suval
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2022
• EAN: 9780197531426
• ISBN: 978-0-19-753142-6
• No. of pages: 296
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, American Civil War