by Duncan A. Campbell and Niels Eichhorn.
Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2024. Pp. xvi, 336.
Notes, biblio., index. $55.00. ISBN:080718151X
and Niels Eichhorn. A “Transnational” Look at the Civil War
Eichhorn & Campbell take a rather unique perspective in telling the story of the Civil War, setting it within the “global context of other mid-nineteenth-century political, social, and cultural issues and events,” with occasional comparisons to some earlier or later events. So we have a history in which each chapter compares the Civil War with trends in other countries. The authors contend that this transnational method of evaluating the Civil War shows that in some ways it “mirrored those in other parts of the world” in an era characterized by wars of national unity and internal upheaval, whether successful or not, under the influence of liberalism, modernity, nationalism, abolitionism, and imperialism. Though the authors naturally concentrate on a few examples, these encompassed not only the United States, but Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China, India, the Austrian Empire, Japan, France, and many other countries, in different ways.
Viewed thusly, the American Civil War was not a one-off, but part of a global revolutionary trend that affected many countries across the nineteenth century, and even later. They contend that in the 19th century people world wide began to think of the interests of the many rather than the concerns of smaller groups. Eichhorn and Duncan focus their investigation not only on European countries, but nation states in Asia and the Americas as well, where people sought to form nation-states.
Eichhorn and Campbell point out how it was difficult for many to identify with one's own nation and support its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of local interests or those of other nations. In the case of the Civil War, we see how the local interests of the slave states would lead many to support secession.
The authors make some interesting comparisons, seeing Abraham Lincoln, Prussia’s Otto von Bismarck and Piedmont-Sardinia’s Conte di Cavour, in practicing realpolitik in the furtherance of national interests.
In concluding, the authors note that even in our time there are people who have difficulties relating to contemporary trends in society, reminding us that on January 6, 2021 “supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol intending to overturn the election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count the electoral votes that formalized the victory of President-elect Joseph Biden and the transfer of power”. (p. 233)
Readers will find that The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism offers a convincing look at how the Civil War was related to broader global movements. A useful book for the serious student of the Civil War.
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Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, A Fine Opportunity Lost, The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West, The Limits of the Lost Cause on Civil War Memory, War in the Western Theater, J.E.B. Stuart: The Soldier and The Man, The Inland Campaign for Vicksburg, All for the Union: The Saga of One Northern Family, Voices from Gettysburg, The Blood Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah: The 1864 Valley Campaign’s Battle of Cool Creek, June 17-18, 1864, Union General Daniel Butterfield, We Shall Conquer or Die, and Dranesville.
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Note: The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism is also available in e-editions.
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