“The aim of the volume is ‘to bring out the contrast between the old parties and their aims and the new and imperious issues. ‘ The efforts to prevent the crisis which resulted in the Civil war, and the rival habits of thought which made it inevitable are clearly shown, the effects of the struggle upon parties, legislation and the courts as well as the social and economic changes brought about by railroad development and the growth of cotton are carefully detailed.” Book Review Digest
— Standard Catalog for Public Libraries: History (H.W. Wilson) 1929
Chapter headings are:

1. The Situation and the Problem (1850-1860)
   
2. The Compromise a Finality (1850-1851)
   
3. Politics without an Issue (1851-1853)
   
4. The Old Leaders and the New (1850-1860)
   
5. The Era of Railroad Building (1850-1857)
   
6. Diplomacy and Tropical Expansion (1850-1855)
   
7. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1853-1854)
   
8. Party Chaos in the North (1854)
   
9. Popular Sovereignty in Kansas (1854-1856)
   
10. The Failure of the Know-Nothing Party (1854-1856)
    
11. The Kansas Question before Congress (1856)
    
12. The Presidential Election (1856)
    
13. The Panic of 1857 (1856-1858)
    
14. The Supreme Court and the Slavery Question (1850-1860)
    
15. The Final Stage of the Kansas Struggle (1857-1858)
    
16. The Triumph of Douglas (1858)
    
17. The Irrepressible Conflict (1858-1869)
    
18. Foreign Affairs During the Kansas Contest (1855-1860)
    
19. Social Ferment in the North (1850-1860)
    
20. Sectionalism in the South (1850-1860)
    
21. Critical Essay on Authorities