Nullification, a Constitutional History, 1776-1833 - 2nd Edition by W Kirk Wood (Paperback)

About the Book

This book asks the questions: if Nullification was constitutional and an American not Southern or sectional principle of republican and federal government, what happened to it? How did it come to be viewed as something unconstitutional, sinister, and even disunionist?

Book Synopsis

This book asks the questions: if Nullification was constitutional and an American not Southern or sectional principle of republican and federal government, what happened to it? How did it come to be viewed as something unconstitutional, sinister, and even disunionist? This second volume of Nullification, A Constitutional History, 1787-1828 is the first to answer this critical question.

After tracing the origins of the first and second Nullification movements in America (Virginia in the 1790s and New England from 1808 to 1815) and characterizing them both to be defenses of the republic and its federal, not national character (with Nullification as a constitutional veto or negative given to the states for the preservation of their reserved rights), the early rejection of nullification as an original intention is then explained.

Review Quotes

"I would like to congratulate you on your brilliant, iconoclastic, and illuminating research." --Dr. Arthur Scherr, City University of New York, New York City, New York

"Volume Two is splendid. Beautifully written and with learning unsurpassed in our generation." --Dr. Clyde N. Wilson, University of South Carolina

"I am again impressed by the force of your prose. You construct an argument that readers will not be able to ignore." --Dr. Robert M. Weir, University of South Carolina

"These books present an important overall thesis and narrative." --Journal of Southern History

About the Author

W. Kirk Wood, Ph.D., is professor of history at Alabama State University.