Charles Follen's Search for Nationality and Freedom: Germany and America, 1796-1840, Vol. 124 Book

David Grimsted makes the reader work with this book. The author assumes a level of familiarity with antebellum history, referring to historical events (i.e. Abolutionist Mail Campaign, Wilmot Proviso, etc.) without explanation, laying out a tought path for those without prior knowledge. Grimsted's prose is also very dense, his ornate sentence structure rendering at least one sentence in every paragraph a puzzle that must be re-read at least once to glean full understanding. And yet, the insight this book provides is unique to understanding the Just-Barely United States in the decades leading to the Civil War.