"As the nineteenth century began, the United States was a country in search of definition, of national character. Like other Americans, Southerners found the process of national self-definition urgent and exhilarating. But a series of shocks -- social, economic, intellectual, and finally, political -- gave an increasingly distinctive twist to the ideology of nationalism that developed in the South. By 1860, though agreeing with the North over constitutional fundamentals and sharing with other Americans similar hopes and fears, many Southerners had concluded that only in a separate Southern nation could their rights and security be preserved. This book is a study of how and why the ideology of Southern nationalism arose and spread."--Book cover.