Holman Hamilton

This account of the failed Compromise of 1850 a decade before the Civil War "has all the suspense of a novel . . . incisive and provocative" (The Journal of American History). In 1850, America was expanding rapidly westward as countless citizens went in search of land, opportunity-and, thanks to the gold rush in California, fortune. With settlements growing into towns and towns growing into cities, there was an urgent need for state and local government. But...