Listen free for 30 days

  • A Disease in the Public Mind

  • A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War
  • Written by: Thomas Fleming
  • Narrated by: William Hughes
  • Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
  • 1.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
A Disease in the Public Mind cover art

A Disease in the Public Mind

Written by: Thomas Fleming
Narrated by: William Hughes
Try for $0.00

$14.95 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $20.15

Buy Now for $20.15

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

By the time his body hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper’s Ferry, abolitionists had made John Brown a "holy martyr" in the fight against Southern slave owners. But Northern hatred for Southerners had been long in the making. Northern rage was born of the conviction that New England, whose spokesmen and militia had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern "slavocrats" like Thomas Jefferson. And Northern envy only exacerbated the South’s greatest fear: race war. In the 60 years preceding the outbreak of civil war, Northern and Southern fanatics ramped up the struggle over slavery. By the time they had become intractable enemies, only the tragedy of a bloody civil war could save the Union.

In this riveting and character-driven history, one of America’s most respected historians traces the "disease in the public mind" - distortions of reality that seized large numbers of Americans - in the decades-long run-up to the Civil War.
©2013 Thomas Fleming (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
Wars & Conflicts New Civil War
Show more Show less

What the critics say

"The prolific Fleming, for decades a fixture among American historians, pinpoints public opinion as the proximate origin of the war.… Making a plausible presentation of antebellum attitudes and illusions, Fleming is sure to spark lively discussion about the Civil War." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about A Disease in the Public Mind

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 1 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 1 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.ca reviews

Amazon Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Merry Benezra

History is white

I had to give up on this book, halfway through and despite its granular exposition of the decades between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Fleming's premise is that the Civil War was caused by New England abolitionists with hatred (a word used in this context over and over again) in their hearts for the South and for slaveholders who, in Fleming's view, were reasonably motivated by their fears of slave uprisings. The enormity of the harm to enslaved black people is almost completely sidelined, as for Fleming, American history is about what happens to white people.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful