John C. Calhoun (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

This 1882 volume in the American Statesmen series was the first scholarly biography of Calhoun, the "cast-iron man" of South Carolina, whose fiery oratory hastened the South toward secession. Holst's presentation of Calhoun is colored by his own profound antipathy for slavery—an institution Calhoun famously championed as "a positive good."