A proud disclaimer: Timothy S. Huebner, the author of Liberty and Union: The Civil War and American Constitutionalism, is my friend and colleague. One reason is that he writes and thinks so deeply and well about how history illuminates the present. In February Huebner’s op-ed in the New York Times shed needed light on the question of what historically has happened when a Supreme Court vacancy occurs during a president’s final year. Now comes his book about the Civil War, with roots extending back to the nation’s founding and branches reaching into the present. What follows is the transcript of an email interview with the author, with an emphasis on the light it sheds on everything from vice presidential selection to the Supreme Court and Donald Trump:
The pre-Civil War era was marked by profound political shifts, with the breakdown of the Whig Party and the rise of Republican Party. Does this have any relevance to what the Republican Party is experiencing today? Not really, because The situation was different from today in two ways. First, the party system was more
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