Years before the Civil War began, another dark conflict threatened to shatter the Union.

On the Brink of Civil War tells the dramatic story of what happened when a handful of senators-towering figures in nineteenth-century American history-tried to hammer out a compromise to save the Union. Waugh's richly detailed, swiftly moving narrative reads like a novel, yet he brings perspective and interpretation to the events that will help students understand the meaning of this complex, alarming period in America's past. The Compromise of 1850 makes history come alive and will enlighten and entertain students in courses on the Civil War era, U.S. political history, and survey courses on U.S. history.