How one piece of legislation divided a nation - Ben Labaree, Jr.

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-legislation-that-birthed-the-republican-party-ben-labaree-jr You may think that things are heated in Washington today, but the Kansas-Nebraska...

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Today when people complain about the stateof American politics,they often mention the dominance ofthe Democratic and Republican Parties,or the sharp split between red and blue states.But while it may seem like both of these thingshave been around forever,the situation looked quite different in 1850,with the Republican Party not yet existing,and support for the dominant Democrats and Whigscutting across geographic divides.The collapse of this Second Party Systemwas at the center of increasing regional tensionsthat would lead to the birth of the Republican Party,the rise of Abraham Lincoln as its leader,and a civil war that would claim over half a million lives.And if this collapse could be blamedon a single event,it would be the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.The story sta...