Description
Book SynopsisIn this first full-length study of Claiborne Fox Jackson, Christopher Phillips offers much more than a traditional biography. His analysis of Jackson's rise to power through the tangle that was Missouri's antebellum politics and of Jackson's actions in pursuit of his state's secession complete the deeper and broader story of regional identity.
Trade ReviewMore than a biography, this book about Missouri's secessionist governor analyzes the antebellum socioeconomic and political history of a state both literally and figuratively on the border-between North and South, East and West, freedom and slavery, modernity and tradition. The reader will come away with enhanced understanding of why Missouri suffered a vicious civil war within the larger Civil War." —James M. McPherson
"Christopher Phillips has written about people named Marmaduke, Sappington, Thomas Hart Benton, and 'the Fox,' about places like The Boon's Lick, about a horse named Duke Sumner. And he tells good stories. But this book is about nationality, culture, imagination, and identity. This is an important work of mature scholarship." —Emory M. Thomas
