Zubair Farooq,
History,
27th November 2012.

“The Fate of Their Country”
Michael F. Holt.

"To locate the most direct causes of the American Civil War," he contends in the preface, "one must look at the actions of governmental officeholders in the decades before that horrific conflict." Professor Michael F Holt needs no introduction among historians. He is single handedly regarded as one of the scholars who is most responsible for the emergence of what some call a neo-revisionist interpretation and outlook about the origins and circumstances that resulted in the Civil War. His ideas which are reflected throughout his books especially “The Fate of their country” emphasize that the reasons which caused The Civil War
Though I am still to be convinced about Holt’s points, about the Southerners primary needs that they were compelled to salvage honor and save face over any realistic and practical expectations regarding the extension of slavery, into the territories that were conquered or usurped or politically acquired. Holt also holds another argument strongly that has been criticized from time to time and that is that it wasn’t slavery per-say but the continuous debates and differences in opinion and stances on topics related to the extension of slavery into the new territories and states that resulted into the great divide between the North and the South and ending up in the Civil War. Holt takes us back in time and gives us a glimpse of the era of politicians whose visage would never be honored at Mt. Rushmore as their own personal agendas and interests trumped those of the nation. Many examples of such agendas are given and pointed out in the book such as Steven A. Douglas who worked hard and strived to complete the Transcontinental Railroad which was made to seem as the greatest gift of the era to the American people was in part actually to make sure that it would pass through his own estates and land to create a profit for him.

Holt also explores the motivations and reasoning behind some of the very well-known figures in