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Abbie Kowalewski, gifted and passionate student of the past, constantly reminded me that history is a story of people, not abstractions. Our regular breakfasts before my research sessions at the Library of Congress sent me sailing into the nineteenth century with the wind at my back.

Birch Bayh, Kitty Bayh, Richard Ben Cramer, and Joan Smith—cherished friends all—helped me through a rough patch and extended many other kindnesses (and meals) throughout the course of this project. Birch embodies the kind of statesmanship our country sorely needed, and finally got, in 1861—not to mention the kind that it could use in 2011. Richard is one of the snazziest writers I know. Kitty and Joan are two of the most thoughtful and civilized readers I know; moreover, Joan provided invaluable help with my illustrations and bibliography. For offering inspiration and encouragement (not least by example) when I needed it most, I also thank my friends Marc Pachter, Joshua Wolf Shenk, and especially Robert Wilson.

I am proud to be a member of Washington College’s extraordinary community of teachers and students. I feel especially fortunate to work with a superb group of colleagues at the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, each of whom brings to bear his or her own perspective on history, and who made my life both easier and happier throughout the course of this project: Jill Ogline Titus, Jenifer Emley, Michael Buckley, and Lois Kitz. My colleague in the History Department, Richard Striner—author of important scholarship on Lincoln and the Civil War era—read my manuscript and offered helpful suggestions. Mitchell Reiss, Baird Tipson, and Christopher Ames were all generous with their encouragement. For their support of my work at the Starr Center, I am also grateful to Jay Griswold, the Hodson Trust (especially the late Finn M. W. Caspersen), the late Margaret Nuttle, and Margaret Melcher. Toasts to Mary Wood, the late Howard Wood, James Wood, and Olivia Wood (as well as their thirteen generations of voluble and colorful ancestors) for the adventure at Poplar Grove that led me into 1861.

For assistance, support, and camaraderie of many kinds during the writing of this book, I thank Jeffrey Akman, Julianna Andrews, Adam Arenson, Richard Beeman, Felicia Bell, Ira Berlin, Dianne Brace and Bob Lynch, Clayton and Masha Black, Bill Bodenschatz, Jack Bohrer, Jennifer Brathovde, Wanda Brogdon, Elizabeth Broun, Elizabeth Clay, J. Michael Cobb, Thomas and Virginia Collier, Jasper Colt, Christian D’Andrea, Steven Dick, Murray and Mary Drabkin, Robert and Louisa Duemling, Kaity Edwards, Lennart Erickson, Ralph Eubanks, Dennis Fiori, Charles Francis, Meredith Davies Hadaway, Eleanor Harvey, Richard Hatcher, Brian Hecht and Douglas Gaasterland, Barbara Heck, Lesley Herrmann, Harold Holzer, Tony Horwitz, Maria Hynson, Mary Jackson, the Jefferson Institute, Karl Kehm, Donald Kennon, Jamaica Kincaid, Bruce Kirby, Chip and Linda Knight, Michael Lai, Diane Landskroener, Charles King Mallory III, James Martin, Carla Massoni, Kitty Maynard, Donald and Ann McColl, Alex McDowell, Maurice Meslans and Margaret Holyfield, Michael Meyer and Suzanne Seggerman, Ken Miller, Marla Miller, Megan Nelson, Scott Reynolds Nelson, Sam Newell and Ilana Wind, Susan O’Donovan, Andrew Oros and Steven Clemons, Eric Paff, Edward Papenfuse, Atiba Pertilla, Leslie and Vince Raimond, Mary Rhinelander, Vincent Robinson, Ted Rose, Jeremy Rothwell, Richard Schmidt, Helen Schneeberg, Ivan Schwartz and Mary van de Wiel, John Sellers, Gregory Shelton, Scott Shumaker and Barry Halvorson, Janet Sorrentino, Ben Soskis, Jacob and Katherine Spencer, David O. Stewart, Scott Stossel, Ned Sublette, Martin Sullivan, Regina Thielke, Kathy Thornton, Phillip Todd, John Ulrich, Carol van Veen, Thomas Watson, Freddy Widmer, Felicia Wilson, Laura Wilson, Martha Wilson, Kate Wiltrout, Matt Winters, and Koethi Zan.

I am grateful to Natasha Leland, Sylvain Bellenger and Jean-Loup Champion, Gary Tinterow