What was the blundering generation

Sociologist James W. This article was first published in the Washington Post and is reprinted with permission. President Trump yet again finds himself in possible Pinocchio land, this time for suggesting that Andrew Jackson could have — or would have — averted the Civil War. Trump has touched a controversy that has engaged historians and the public for more than a century.

Jackson famously faced down his vice president, John C. Calhoun, on the possibility of states rebelling against the federal government after Congress passed a tariff that hurt the Southern plantation economy. If you originally registered with a username please use that to sign in. To purchase short term access, please sign in to your Oxford Academic account above. Don't already have an Oxford Academic account?

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Sign In or Create an Account. Sign In. Advanced Search. Search Menu. Article Navigation. This being the case, Southern states concluded, one by one and often for somewhat different reasons, that the federal government lacked legitimacy. The resort to military force upon the part of the federal government only confirmed their suspicions.

An older conflict, however, re-emerged. One need only consult an election map broken down by county to see this ancient Anglo-American conflict in colors of red and blue, center versus periphery, court versus country. The great metropolitan cities and suburbs, college towns, the financial centers, the techno-autocrats of the left coast, and their suburbs arrayed against the small towns and rural counties of America.

Neither slavery nor sectionalism nor the two-party system obscures the conflict now. A wide and deep enmity and distrust now separates Americans and reaches its icy hands to divide colleagues, friends, and families. Trump fought long and hard with the Court party elites who attempted to portray him as a puppet of Mr. The Court party denies this as a matter of course. In our post rational society, those who decided Mr.

Trump was an illegitimate president will not be moved by such petty inconveniences as facts, sworn affidavits, and evidence. Meanwhile, Mr. The harsh and damning terms in which Mr. Moreover, better evidence for Mr. What the Court did to delegitimize Mr. It is turning millions of Americans toward questioning the legitimacy of the election and the Biden regime who waits in the wings. David Hackworth , political hacks and bureaucrats: the sort of men whom John Randolph once described as worthy of loathing and fear, for they are the citizens of no country.

All of America is now Maryland and Kentucky, circa The Irrepressible Conflict school argues that the North and South were becoming such different societies that they could no longer co-exist in one nation, and war was the inevitable consequence.

However, the historians of this school do not all agree on what the crucial differences were between North and South. The Blundering Generation school argues that radically different societies can co-exist without going to war.