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Article: Fanatics and Fire-Eaters: Newspapers and the Coming of the Civil War.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Canadian Journal of History
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Canadian Journal of History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fanatics and Fire-Eaters: Newspapers and the Coming of the Civil War, by Lorman A. Ratner and Dwight L. Teeter Jr. The History of Communication series. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 2003. xvi, 138 pp. $34.95 US (cloth).
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, former president James Buchanan argued that fanatical northern anti-slavery agitators needlessly perpetuated the War. By the 1930s, these agitators faded into the background as historian James Randall's "blundering generation" theory gained currency. Fifty years later, Michael Holt dismissed both Buchanan's fanatics and Randall's "blundering generation," arguing that the collapse of the ...