Recounts personal stories of how five Southerners came to their own individual decisions to abandon the Union during the Civil War era. Each story represents a current in the movement that culminated in secession. Their opinions may seem foreign to Americans raised on the permitted conventions of popular history. Those who view the struggle over slavery as a morality play, as well as those who minimize slavery's importance, will both be challenged. Includes b&w portraits. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Occasionally, straight narrative history seems heaven-sent. Case in point: Cisco's unpretentious chronicle of the Old South's argument for secession, presented in successive profiles of early proponent Thomas Cooper, major agitator Barnwell Rhett, and the reluctant secessionists James Henley Thornwell (a religious apologist for slavery), ex-president John Tyler, and North Carolina congressman John A. Gilmer. Thornwell foresaw how calamitous secession would prove, Tyler strove heroically to keep the Upper South in the Union, and ardent unionist Gilmer, whom Lincoln offered a cabinet post, agreed to secession only after Lincoln called for troops. Cisco tells each man's story until the next comes to the fore, and he enlivens each big profile with brief sketches of other major figures, such as John Randolph and John C. Calhoun. Secession's transformation from a reaction primarily against high tariffs to one primarily for slavery appears all too plainly, without any authorial underlining. Just as obvious are the virtues and strengths of the five main subjects and the rationality, in the abstract, of secession. Top-drawer popular history. Ray Olson Used Book in Good Condition