The Missouri Compromise: the firebell in the night -- Nullification: South Carolina versus the Union -- Envisioning the perfect society: the defense of slavery and the South -- Disrupting the Union: the house divided -- Reconstruction: the bitterness continues -- A new South begins to emerge: reconciliation and reunion -- The South looks back: creating the Old South and the lost cause -- Resolving the South's problem: defining the segregated South -- Precursors of Progressivism: nineteenth-century advocates for a more humane South.