The Politics of Disunion: Washington in Crisis, 1848–1861

In the thirteen fateful years before the Civil War, US politics did not merely struggle—it broke down. This four-lecture series explores how a functioning political system collapsed under the weight of slavery, sectional rivalry, and failed leadership. Three forces drove this unraveling: the intensifying divide over slavery, the fragmentation and collapse of the Whig and Democratic parties, and a succession of presidents—Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan—unable or unwilling to meet the crisis. Along the way, we encounter some of the most dramatic episodes in U.S. political history, brought to life by a cast of brilliant and deeply flawed figures, including Stephen Douglas, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis. Congress became a battleground, compromise grew elusive, and political norms eroded. By the end, the machinery of government could no longer contain the nation’s divisions. This course traces how the conflicts of the 1850s made disunion—and ultimately war—unavoidable. This is the first in a two-part series of lectures on the coming of the American Civil War.