The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-1861 Hardcover - 1997

From the publisher

Providing a Sense of Immediacy and Freshness to the subject that has never been achieved before, The Approaching Fury brings the issues and personalities of the antebellum period alive by presenting their views and their actual words in a series of dramatic monologues. Some of the historical figures featured are: Thomas Jefferson and Henry Clay in the Missouri crisis of 1820; Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Stephen A. Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln during the final crisis of 1861. Drawing on their letters, speeches, interviews, and recollections, it simulates how, if they were reminiscing aloud, the speakers would describe the crucial events in which they were the principal actors or witnesses. The result is an exciting firsthand account that shows the crucial role that perception of events played in the sectional hostilities that irreversibly bore the nation toward Civil War.(The Approaching Fury) powerfully re-creates some of the momentous events that produced the catastrophe of 1861. Oates succeeds in bringing his characters alive ... and by getting inside of each of them ... he presents their arguments with great force and conviction. -- Robert V. Remini, New York Times Book Review