Review: The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War

By Matthew May

A haughty, self-involved United States senator from Massachusetts was recognized on the Senate floor and began to speak... It's not what you think. This is not a story about Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, nor a review of John Kerry's speech there on, well, anything. It is a prelude to what author and Suffolk University faculty member Stephen Puleo calls the incident that pushed America to civil war: the caning of Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks. Puleo's book, The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War, is a vivid account of the May 22, 1856 incident on the floor of the Senate in which Brooks beat Sumner nearly to death with a gold-topped gutta-percha cane. The skill with which Puleo introduces the events surrounding and following the incident brings life and significance to the black-and-white illustration of Sumner cowering under the attack we may have contemplated with mild amusement in school textbooks. Puleo's account of the caning is unique in that it presents in.... (Read Full Article)