David M. Potter

David Morris Potter (December 6, 1910 – February 18, 1971) was an American historian specializing in the study of the lead up to the American Civil War, especially the political factors involved. His best known book is The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, which was completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher and published posthumously in 1976; it won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for History. Quotes Americans have always been especially prone to regard all things as resulting from the free choice of a free will. Probably no people have so little determinism in their philosophy, and as individuals we have regarded our economic status, our matrimonial happiness, and even our eternal salvation as things of our own making. Why should we not then regard our political felicity, likewise, as a virtue which is also virtue's reward? People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character (University of Chicago Press, 1954) pt. 2, ch. 5, p. 111 Democracy is clearly most appropriate for countries which enjoy an economic surplus and least appropriate for countries where there is an economic insufficiency. People of Plenty (1954) pt. 2, ch. 5, p. 112 Here, for the last time together, appeared a triumvirate of old men, relics of a golden age, who still towered like giants above creatures of a later time: Webster, the kind of senator that Richard Wagner might have created at the height of his powers; Calhoun, the most majestic champion of error since Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost; and Clay, the old Conciliator, who had already saved the Union twice and now came out of retirement to save it with his silver voice and his master touch once again before he died. The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (New York: Harper & Row, 1976) ch. 5, p. 98 See: Compromise of 1850 External links Category:Historians from the United States Category:Yale University alumni Category:Yale University faculty Category:Stanford University faculty Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:People from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Category:1910 births Category:1971 deaths