West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire

Reviewer Amy S. Greenberg writes that Kevin Waite’s West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire is a “marvelous study” that “makes a convincing case for the transcontinental aspirations and reach of southern slaveholders” in the Civil War era. Waite examines southern expansionists’ desires for expansion—territorial and economic—their efforts toward their goals, the beliefs that motivated them, and how adherence to those beliefs influenced southerners’ reactions to Reconstruction. The book will appeal to a wide audience, and “will make an excellent addition to undergraduate syllabi” relating to antebellum expansion, Greenberg believes