David M. Potter (1910–1971), born in Augusta, Georgia, was professor of history at Yale and Stanford universities. At the time of his death he was president of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. He was posthumously awarded the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for The Impending Crisis, from which this piece is drawn. Among his other books are Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis, People of Plenty, and The South and the Sectional Conflict. Don E. Fehrenbacher (1920–1997), David M. Potter’s colleague at Stanford University, edited and completed The Impending Crisis. He won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for The Dred Scott Case.
