Border War

Harrold is at his best when he discusses how, when, and why the violence occurred, and its impact on the ongoing struggle. --The North Carolina Historical Review

Harrold makes impressive use of newspapers and manuscript sources. His engaging study should appeal to students of many historical subjects. --Journal of American History

Border War is a must-have for anyone seeking to understand the small-scale underlying fights that snowballed the Civil War. . . . Textbooks and many leading historical works leave gaps by portraying the sweeping movements, but Harrold fills in the details without which a true and thorough understanding of the slavery issue and the Civil War is impossible.--Virginia Libraries

[Border War] is a solid, detailed narrative of the violent conflict that developed along the border between the North and South in the decades before the Civil War.--The Annals of Iowa

[This book] can help those trying to develop a better understanding of the issues that led to secession. . . . Highly recommended.--Blue & Gray Magazine

[This book] should immediately be standard reading for all historians of antebellum America.--Journal of Southern History

A good addition to all Civil War collections.--Library Journal

A sobering, meticulously researched and astutely presented historical analysis, highly recommended especially for college library collections.--Midwest Book Review

A welcome exploration of the volatile decades of sectional strife that preceded the Civil War.--Canadian Journal of History

An excellent addition to the literature on causes of the Civil War.--Journal of NC Association of Historians

Fast-paced, lucid, and well-researched.--American Historical Review

Harrold's book is not only informative but provocative.--Indiana Magazine of History

In Border War, Stanley Harrold cements his reputation as one of the leading scholars of sectional tensions in the antebellum and Civil War eras. . . . A must read for historians of the middle nineteenth century.--Tennessee Historical Quarterly

Offers a refreshing perspective on disunion by examining the tensions in the North-South borderland. . . [and] sheds new light on how the slave states sought to protect their peculiar institution.--West Virginia History

Relying on an impressive array of archival and secondary sources, Harrold reconfigures the Underground Railroad into a complex series of events.--Kansas History

Scholars of nineteenth-century America generally, and the Civil War era specifically, would benefit greatly from adding Border War to their collections.--Arkansas Historical Quarterly

Stanley Harrold has written an excellent book that is sure to prompt debate and additional research. It will be required reading for historians of the slavery controversy in the United States.--Civil War Book Review

The impressive research in Border War raises a theme that historians must confront.--Journal of Illinois History

This book is important in understanding the intense feelings on both sides of the conflict that help lead to the start of our American Civil War. . . . Excellent.--Lone Star Book Review

This is a unique book and one that is necessary to read if you want to understand politics prior to the war.--TOCWOC: A Civil War Blog

This provocative book . . . will receive its share of attention.--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

This work forces historians to reconsider the fault lines of the origins of the Civil War and promises new directions for research. Highly recommended.--Choice