Gadson's book is a great examination of what it means to go against one's country and the social order. Of course, people familiar with history will recognize some stories, like Bleeding Kansas and the events of Reconstruction in South Carolina. However, the book's strength lies in discussing what surely can be classified as more unknown history. The Buckshot War? The Brooks-Baxter War? I had never heard of these. They both were fascinating to read about, and maybe as our country continues to deal with polarization and division, they might continue to pop up. Gadson, though, does a great job of introducing readers to events in Arkansas and Pennsylvania, showing that these events that threaten to tear the country apart just don't happen within the capital beltway, or even the east coast.

It's worth considering: how do we remember these events, and what narratives do we, as Americans, spin to explain these stories? We see it with January 6 and Gadson makes it clear that similar events have taken place in all of these stories, too. His analysis of Bleeding Kansas and South Carolina, therefore, shouldn't be skipped. His presentation puts these events not just in the larger context of the other events in the book, but he helps readers understand that there is another layer to the story that is often missed. So many see both of those events as tied to the civil war, which would no be inaccurate. What this book does is make a convincing argument that there is something deeper going on: rival views, sometimes based on race, sometimes based on class, about the fundamental nature and identity of America and its make-up. It's clear that we have consistently argued about our fundamental identity, to the point of violence. In that respect, we should not have been terribly surprised at the developments of January 6, nor should we believe that it will never happen again.

When people feel threatened, especially at what I would call a civic level, this book shows that people are willing to do whatever they can to protect their way of life from changing. There is no extremism when the destruction of your way of life seems to be seeping into your community. While this argument may be unsettling, maybe we can think positively: knowing our instincts can help us combat them in the future.

Thank you, NYU Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished Sedition: How America’s Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis, by Marcus Alexander Gadson.

This book will be published on May 13, 2025.

This book is about the writing of state constitutions and the battles that ensued from that. The book covered six incidents of rewriting state constitutions in the 19th century. There are stories of vote fraud, near violence, actual violence and plenty of white supremacy. There was plenty of good information in the book and stories that even big history buffs won’t already be familiar with.

I give this book an A.

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I finished reading this on December 27, 2024.