An Agrarian Republic

“A fresh perspective that demands consideration.” — CHOICE

“Makes original and important contributions to the political history of the Civil War era. . . . Marks a sorely needed and convincing historiographical intervention.” — Journal of American History

“An important new work that powerfully reorients our thinking about interregional political conflict during the Civil War era.” — Journal of Southern History

“Precisely the sort of direction in which Civil War environmental history needs to travel.” — Civil War Monitor

“Dean supports his argument well. . . . [And] rightly points out that emphasis on the Republicans’ agrarian worldview makes the policies that they favored before, during, after the Civil War more comprehensible.” — Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“An ambitious exploration of the roots of an increasingly volatile disagreement over the meaning and original purpose of the West.” — Western Historical Quarterly

“Dean’s work is a valuable addition well worth the time of all who study the party of Abraham Lincoln and the many rural Republican “Boys in Blue” that eventually did its bidding.” — H-Net Reviews

“Does a good job of taking the familiar details of mid-[19th] century America and reassembling them in a new light...There is much to think about in this good book.” — Kansas History

“A well-written, important book for specialists and general readers alike and should spark renewed interest in nineteenth-century midwestern agrarian values and practices.” — The Annals of Iowa

“Astutely connects seemingly disparate policy changes in the United States by revealing the underlying battles over land use. . . . Reasserts the significance of agriculture to nineteenth-century America and provides a greater understanding of early American identity.” — North Carolina Historical Review