The Scorpion's Sting
Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War
20 November 2015
Description
A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction
The image of a scorpion surrounded by a ring of fire, stinging itself to death, was widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War. It captures their long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: they would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom, constricting slavery and inducing the social crisis in which the peculiar institution would die. The image opens a fresh perspective on antislavery and the coming of the Civil War, brilliantly explored here by one of our greatest historians of the period.
Reviews
"Offers the best explication of the long history by which Americans embraced the legitimacy of military emancipation, and it offers great insight into the debate over which took precedence: the natural right to property or the natural right to freedom." — Ira Berlin, Washington Post
"Beautifully argued and succeeds in telling us new things about a heavily explored topic." — Mark M. Smith, Wall Street Journal
"In The Scorpion’s Sting, Oakes surveys the legal doctrines that enabled President Abraham Lincoln to envision and then enact the Emancipation Proclamation…[It] will lead readers to reflect on the degree to which international law might hold significant implications for the American system of government." — Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs
"A brilliant book that will force even the most veteran student of antebellum America to rethink previously held assumptions about emancipation." — Erik J. Chaput, Providence Journal
"In four swift, clear strokes, James Oakes has rewritten the history of emancipation in the United States." — Allen C. Guelzo
"If any reader still questions whether the Civil War was about slavery, this book overcomes all doubts." — James McPherson
"Incisive, imaginative, surprising, completely original—everything that one would expect from the most eminent historian of emancipation." — Eric J. Sundquist
"In clear prose and with searing insight, James Oakes recovers the moral urgency and strategic vision behind the Republican drive to undermine the slave system. A work of great depth and empathy." — Alan Taylor
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