To Govern the Devil in Hell by Pearl T. Ponce

Although ample attention has been devoted to understanding why territorial violence broke out in Kansas in 1856, of equal concern but less illuminated is the question of why government, both local and national, allowed the violence to continue unstanched for so long.

One hundred and fifty years after Kansas was admitted to the Union, we still find ourselves fascinated by the specter of 'Bleeding Kansas' and the violence that preceded the American Civil War by five years. Ponce's book is a real contribution to the debate over democratic governance and the coming of the Civil War.'-James Simeone, author of Democracy and Slavery in Frontier Illinois: The Bottomland Republic (NIU Press, 2000) 'The author's balanced perspective and meticulous research make To Govern the Devil in Hell an authoritative account of Kansas politics in the mid-1850s and the ramifications of those territorial dynamics for the impending crisis of the Civil War.'-Canadian Journal of History 'Scholars who specialize in antebellum politics will find Ponce's monograph a treasure trove of useful data and considerable insight on the Kansas question.'-American Nineteenth Century History' Reseña del editor: No one covers the story from the perspective of governance, no one follows the Kansas story more thoroughly, from inside the local scene out to the national level, and no work that I know of tracks the story through all of its sectional, partisan, and national institutional dimensions.

Recommended.'-CHOICE 'Drawing on the current literature of politics and sectionalism in antebellum America, Ponce untangles the complex interactions between events inside and outside of Kansas Territory.'-Kansas History 'The work is original. ''This well-researched book explains all the political intricacies that made territorial Kansas so volatile-and the political mismanagement that helped bring on the Civil War.'-The Journal of Southern History 'Ponce's single greatest insight in this book is the lack of a political solution to the crisis of expansionism and slavery and the ease of resorting to war.

To Govern the Devil in Hell by Pearl T. Ponce