Bibliography of John C. Calhoun

This is a select bibliography of mainly post World War II books and journal articles about John C. Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850).

John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman, champion of slavery, and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer and proponent of a strong federal government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views shifted, and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs, and became notorious as an outspoken defender of slavery in the United States. Calhoun saw Northern acceptance of those policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union. His beliefs heavily influenced the South's secession from the Union in 1860 and 1861.

Works listed here are cited in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly sources. Each is published by an academic or major press, written by a recognized expert, or substantially reviewed in scholarly journals; borderline cases are omitted. A selection of primary sources are included. Many of the books below carry their own bibliographies; see the Further reading section for other bibliographies, and the External links section for historical sites, academic sites, and museums.

Citations follow APA style. Book have citations to academic journal or mainstream published reviews when available. For books only partly about the subject, relevant chapter or section titles are provided when useful and available. Translators of the original-language edition are included when possible. In cases where a title or name has appeared with more than one English spelling, the most recent published form is used and a footnote documents any earlier title under which the work appeared.

Bibliography Biography Bancroft, F. (1928). Calhoun and the South Carolina nullification movement. Johns Hopkins Press. Barnwell, J. (1982). Love of order: South Carolina's first secession crisis. University of North Carolina Press. Bartlett, I. H. (1993). John C. Calhoun: A biography. W. W. Norton. Baskin, D. (1969). The pluralist vision of John C. Calhoun. Polity, 2(1), 49–65. Belko, W. S. (2004). John C. Calhoun and the creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs: An essay on political rivalry, ideology, and policymaking in the Early Republic. South Carolina Historical Magazine, 105(3), 170–197. Brown, G. S. (2000). Calhoun's philosophy of politics: A study of A disquisition on government. Mercer University Press. Capers, G. M. (1948). A reconsideration of John C. Calhoun's transition from nationalism to nullification. The Journal of Southern History, 14(1), 34. Capers, G. M. (1960). John C. Calhoun, opportunist: A reappraisal. University of Florida Press. Cheek, H. L., Jr. (2001). Calhoun and popular rule: The political theory of the Disquisition and Discourse. University of Missouri Press. Coit, M. L. (1950). John C. Calhoun: American portrait. Houghton Mifflin. Coit, M. L. (Ed.). (1970). John C. Calhoun: Great lives observed. Prentice-Hall. Current, R. N. (1966). John C. Calhoun. Washington Square Press. Drucker, P. F. (1948). A key to American politics: Calhoun's pluralism. The Review of Politics, 10(4), 412–426. Elder, R. (2021). Calhoun: American heretic. Basic Books. Ellis, R. E. (1987). The Union at risk: Jacksonian democracy, states' rights, and the nullification crisis. Oxford University Press. Ericson, D. F. (1995). The nullification crisis, American republicanism, and the Force Bill debate. The Journal of Southern History, 61(2), 249. Fitzgerald, M. S. (1996). Rejecting Calhoun's expansible army plan: The Army Reduction Act of 1821. War in History, 3(2), 161–185. Ford, L. K., Jr. (1988a). Origins of Southern radicalism: The South Carolina upcountry, 1800–1860. Oxford University Press. Ford, L. K., Jr. (1988b). Recovering the republic: Calhoun, South Carolina, and the concurrent majority. South Carolina Historical Magazine, 89(3), 146–159. Ford, L. K., Jr. (1988c). Republican ideology in a slave society: The political economy of John C. Calhoun. The Journal of Southern History, 54(3), 405. Ford, L. K., Jr. (1994). Inventing the concurrent majority: Madison, Calhoun, and the problem of majoritarianism in American political thought. The Journal of Southern History, 60(1), 19. Freehling, W. W. (1965). Spoilsmen and interests in the thought and career of John C. Calhoun. The Journal of American History, 52(1), 25. Freehling, W. W. (1966). Prelude to Civil War: The nullification controversy in South Carolina, 1816–1836. Harper & Row. Garson, R. A. (1985). Proslavery as political theory: The examples of John C. Calhoun and George Fitzhugh. South Atlantic Quarterly, 84(2), 197–212. Greenberg, K. S. (1976). Revolutionary ideology and the proslavery argument: The abolition of slavery in antebellum South Carolina. The Journal of Southern History, 42(3), 365. Grove, J. (2015). Calhoun and conservative reform. American Political Thought, 4(2), 203–227. Grove, J. G. (2014). Binding the republic together: The early political thought of John C. Calhoun. South Carolina Historical Magazine, 115(2), 100–121. Gutzman, K. R. C. (2002). Paul to Jeremiah: Calhoun's abandonment of nationalism. Journal of Libertarian Studies, 16(2), 3–33. Heckscher, G. (1939). Calhoun's idea of "concurrent majority" and the constitutional theory of Hegel. American Political Science Review, 33(4), 585–590. Hofstadter, R. (1948). John C. Calhoun: The Marx of the master class. In The American political tradition and the men who made it. Alfred A. Knopf. Jarvis, D. E. (2013). The Southern conservative thought of John C. Calhoun and the cultural foundations of the Canadian identity. American Review of Canadian Studies, 43(3), 297–314. Kateb, G. (1969). The majority principle: Calhoun and his antecedents. Political Science Quarterly, 84(4), 583–605. Lerner, R. (1963). Calhoun's new science of politics. American Political Science Review, 57(4), 918–932. Meigs, W. M. (1917). The life of John Caldwell Calhoun (2 vols.). Neale Publishing. Merriam, C. E. (1902). The political theory of Calhoun. American Journal of Sociology, 7(5), 577–594. Niven, J. (1988). John C. Calhoun and the price of union: A biography. Louisiana State University Press. Park, B. E. (2017). The angel of nullification: Imagining disunion in an era before secession. Journal of the Early Republic, 37(3), 507–536. Peterson, M. D. (1987). The great triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. Oxford University Press. Rayback, J. G. (1948). The presidential ambitions of John C. Calhoun, 1844–1848. The Journal of Southern History, 14(3), 331. Read, J. H. (2009). Majority rule versus consensus: The political thought of John C. Calhoun. University Press of Kansas. Safford, J. L. (1995). John C. Calhoun, Lani Guinier, and minority rights. PS: Political Science & Politics, 28(2), 211–216. Salter, A. W. (2014). Calhoun's concurrent majority as a generality norm. Constitutional Political Economy, 26(3), 375–390. Sinha, M. (2000). The counterrevolution of slavery: Politics and ideology in antebellum South Carolina. University of North Carolina Press. Spain, A. O. (1951). The political theory of John C. Calhoun. Bookman Associates. Vajda, Z. (2001). John C. Calhoun's republicanism revisited. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 4(3), 433–457. Vajda, Z. (2013). Complicated sympathies: John C. Calhoun's sentimental Union and the South. South Carolina Historical Magazine, 114(3), 210–230. Vile, J. R. (1989). John C. Calhoun and the constitutional amending process: Article V and the theory of concurrent majorities. American Review of Politics, 9, 64–76. von Holst, H. (1882). John C. Calhoun. Houghton Mifflin. Wilson, C. N. (1990). John C. Calhoun: A bibliography. Meckler. Wiltse, C. M. (1941). Calhoun's democracy. The Journal of Politics, 3(2), 210–223. Wiltse, C. M. (1944). John C. Calhoun, nationalist, 1782–1828. Bobbs-Merrill. Wiltse, C. M. (1949). John C. Calhoun, nullifier, 1829–1839. Bobbs-Merrill. Wiltse, C. M. (1951). John C. Calhoun, sectionalist, 1840–1850. Bobbs-Merrill. Wood, W. K. (2009). History and recovery of the past: John C. Calhoun and the origins of nullification in South Carolina, 1819–1828. Southern Studies, 16, 46–68.

Primary sources Boucher, C. S., & Brooks, R. P. (Eds.). (1930). Correspondence addressed to John C. Calhoun, 1837–1849. In Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1929 (Sixteenth report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission). Government Printing Office. Calhoun, J. C. (1837a). Slavery a positive good [Speech]. United States Senate. Calhoun, J. C. (1837b). Speeches of Mr. Calhoun of S. Carolina, on the bill for the admission of Michigan: Delivered in the Senate of the United States, January, 1837. Calhoun, J. C. (1870). The works of John C. Calhoun: Reports and public letters (R. K. Crallé, Ed.). D. Appleton. Calhoun, J. C. (1953). A disquisition on government and selections from the Discourse (C. G. Post, Ed.). Liberal Arts Press. Calhoun, J. C. (1992a). The essential Calhoun: Selections from writings, speeches, and letters (C. N. Wilson, Ed.). Transaction Publishers. Calhoun, J. C. (1992b). Union and liberty: The political philosophy of John C. Calhoun (R. M. Lence, Ed.). Liberty Fund. Calhoun, J. C. (1995). A disquisition on government and selections from the Discourse (C. G. Post, Ed.). Hackett Publishing. Calhoun, J. C. (1999). The papers of John C. Calhoun (C. N. Wilson & S. B. Cook, Eds.; Vol. 25). University of South Carolina Press. Calhoun, J. C. (2003a). John C. Calhoun: Selected writings and speeches (H. L. Cheek, Jr., Ed.). Regnery Publishing. Calhoun, J. C. (2003b). The papers of John C. Calhoun (C. N. Wilson & S. B. Cook, Eds.; Vol. 27). University of South Carolina Press. Crallé, R. K. (Ed.). (1851–1856). The works of John C. Calhoun (6 vols.). D. Appleton. Freehling, W. W. (Ed.). (1967). The nullification era: A documentary record. Harper & Row. Hay, T. R. (1934). John C. Calhoun and the presidential campaign of 1824: Some unpublished Calhoun letters. The American Historical Review, 40(1), 82–96. Jameson, J. F. (Ed.). (1900). Correspondence of John C. Calhoun. In Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1899 (Vol. 2). Government Printing Office. Meriwether, R. L., Hemphill, W. E., Wilson, C. N., Cook, S. B., & Moore, A. (Eds.). (1959–2003). The papers of John C. Calhoun (28 vols.). University of South Carolina Press.

Background and context Baxter, M. G. (1984). One and inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cooper, W. J., Jr. (1978). The South and the politics of slavery, 1828–1856. Louisiana State University Press. Dangerfield, G. (1965). The awakening of American nationalism, 1815–1828. Harper & Row. Faust, D. G. (Ed.). (1981). The ideology of slavery: Proslavery thought in the antebellum South, 1830–1860. Louisiana State University Press. Fehrenbacher, D. E., & McAfee, W. M. (2002). The slaveholding republic: An account of the United States government's relations to slavery. Oxford University Press. Feller, D. (1995). The Jacksonian promise: America, 1815–1840. Johns Hopkins University Press. Forbes, R. P. (2007). The Missouri Compromise and its aftermath: Slavery and the meaning of America. University of North Carolina Press. Ford, L. K., Jr. (2009). Deliver us from evil: The slavery question in the Old South. Oxford University Press. Freehling, W. W. (1990). The road to disunion: Vol. 1. Secessionists at bay, 1776–1854. Oxford University Press. Genovese, E. D. (1992). The slaveholders' dilemma: Freedom and progress in Southern conservative thought, 1820–1860. University of South Carolina Press.