Today's guest is Ariel Ron, the Glenn M. Linden Assistant Professor of the U.S. Civil War Era History at Southern Methodist University. We discuss his new book Grassroots Leviathan, which argues that agrarian reform movement can give us a new perspective on the Civil War.  We ask him what the democratic developmentalism of antebellum period can tell us about the American state building tradition, and what it might mean for our own troubled times.***LINKS***Ron on twitter: @arielronidRon's faculty profile: https://www.smu.edu/Dedman/Academics/Departments/History/People/FacultyStaff/RonArielGrassroots Leviathan Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Grassroots-Leviathan-Agricultural-Slaveholding-Philadelphia/dp/1421439328