Books describing political movements in the Antebellum South Hello I ve been reading a biography of William H Seward Seward Lincoln s Indispensable Man by Walter Star and have gotten a basic idea of the political movements and players that shaped Northern policy and politics in the decades before the Civil War Abolitionism Nativism Know Nothingism Antimasonry etc I m looking to expand my knowledge to better understand how the South s policies and politics evolved I m getting the impression that the South s politics were dominated by a relatively small landed aristocracy and might not have had such a proliferation of movements or diversity of politically influential thought but I m likely wrong and would like to learn about what did exist at any rate I noticed your comments on the talk page of one of Wikipedia s articles on the era and you seem to know a good deal about the topic Could you recommend a good book or 3 that includes coverage of such topics Regards