The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861

“David M. Potter’s magisterial The Impending Crisis is the single best account to date of the coming of the Civil War.” —Civil War History

David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is "the classic study of of antebellum America" (American Prospect). Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern succession. Now available in a new edition, The Impending Crisis remains "modern scholarship's most comprehensive account of the coming of the Civil War" (Journal of Southern History).

David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern succession. Now available in a new edition, The Impending Crisis remains one of the most celebrated works of American historical writing.

“The classic study of antebellum America” - American Prospect

“Profound and original. The Impending Crisis is history in the grand tradition.” - Eric Foner, New York Times Book Review

“The magnum opus of a great American historian.” - Newsweek

“With a rare combination of nuance and narrative drive, David Potter... vividly portrays a nation coming apart. ... Potter writes with such immediacy that events long past feel like the present unfolding before our eyes.” - Andrew Delbanco, Wall Street Journal

“Modern scholarship’s most comprehensive account of the coming of the Civil War.” - Lacy K. Ford, Journal of Southern History

“David M. Potter’s magisterial The Impending Crisis is the single best account to date of the coming of the Civil War.” - Civil War History