Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War

Dew, the author of Apostles of Disunion, is an American historian specializing in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. He is the Ephraim Williams Professor of American History at Williams College, where he has taught for over 30 years. Despite spending his adult life in New England, Dew asserts a connection to his origins in the book’s first lines, saying, “I am a son of the South” (1). In his youth, he took pride in idealized stories of Confederate righteousness and glory in battle; he believed that the South seceded due to a dispute over states’ rights. Dew’s personal history as a descendant of Confederates and Confederate sympathizers reveals emotional tension between his origins and his historical assertions, as he admits he found this “a painful book to write” (2). Apostles of Disunion calls for a broad-scale confrontation with America’s legacy of white supremacy; this call to action is more compelling for the fact that Dew has undertaken this kind of reckoning personally.

Dew’s training as a historian informs the structure and presentation of the material in the book. He offers a wealth of detailed evidence in support of his central argument, with an intention to persuade his reader and expand a scholarly conversation with thorough examination of primary source material.