Author: Duncan Andrew Campbell Publisher: Boydell & Brewer ISBN: 0861932633 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
Numerous issues in Britain affected public reaction to the American Civil War. Opinion was not straightforward with recent evidence showing that a majority of English people were suspicious of both sides in the conflict. This volume offers new insights into British attitudes to the conflict.
Book Description
Field Marshal Viscount Garnet Joseph Wolseley's writings on the Civil War provide a fascinating perspective on America's bloodiest conflict. New preface by Editor James Rawley.
Author: Alfred Grant Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 9780786406302 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
Those writing for the British press of the mid-Victorian era were masters of the English language, given to tirades of grand oratory. They liked to cover the former colonies, arousing rhetorical fears among Britons over the increasing power of the United States. With the advent of the American Civil War, the British press had the perfect opportunity to practice their peculiar brand of journalism. The South was the home of virtuous aristocrats, and Lincoln had bad taste, bad grammar and the respect of no one. Selections from all of Britain's major Civil War-era newspapers and magazines (along with numerous pamphlets) are presented, with the author's historical and editorial comments. A revealing assessment of British journalistic treatment of the War Between the States is the result. Sections of the book are devoted to the British press' handling of contentious issues between the North and South, specific battles or persons, a detailed profile of The Times of London (including personal correspondence) with examples of the bias in favor of the Confederacy in The Times' reportage, and the portrayal by the press of Lincoln's presidency upon his assassination (suddenly The Times found wisdom and goodness).
Author: Hugh Dubrulle Publisher: LSU Press ISBN: 0807168823 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 483
Book Description
In Ambivalent Nation, Hugh Dubrulle explores how Britons envisioned the American Civil War and how these conceptions influenced their discussions about race, politics, society, military affairs, and nationalism. Contributing new research that expands upon previous scholarship focused on establishing British public opinion toward the war, Dubrulle offers a methodical dissection of the ideological forces that shaped that opinion, many of which arose from the complex Anglo-American postcolonial relationship. Britain’s lingering feeling of ownership over its former colony contributed heavily to its discussions of the American Civil War. Because Britain continued to have a substantial material interest in the United States, its writers maintained a position of superiority and authority in respect to American affairs. British commentators tended to see the United States as divided by two distinct civilizations, even before the onset of war: a Yankee bourgeois democracy and a southern oligarchy supported by slavery. They invariably articulated mixed feelings toward both sections, and shortly before the Civil War, the expression of these feelings was magnified by the sudden emergence of inexpensive newspapers, periodicals, and books. The conflicted nature of British attitudes toward the United States during the antebellum years anticipates the ambivalence with which the British reacted to the American crisis in 1861. Britons used prewar stereotypes of northerners and southerners to help explain the course and significance of the conflict. Seen in this fashion, the war seemed particularly relevant to a number of questions that occupied British conversations during this period: the characteristics and capacities of people of African descent, the proper role of democracy in society and politics, the future of armed conflict, and the composition of a durable nation. These questions helped shape Britain’s stance toward the war and, in turn, the war informed British attitudes on these subjects. Dubrulle draws from numerous primary sources to explore the rhetoric and beliefs of British public figures during these years, including government papers, manuscripts from press archives, private correspondence, and samplings from a variety of dailies, weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies. The first book to examine closely the forces that shaped British public opinion about the Civil War, Ambivalent Nation contextualizes and expands our understanding of British attitudes during this tumultuous period.
Author: Thomas E. Sebrell Publisher: Lexington Books ISBN: 073918511X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 255
Book Description
This is the first scholarly analysis of The London American, the pro-Union propaganda journal published in London during the American Civil War, and the motives and troubles of its proprietor, John Adams Knight, a Northern American based in the British capital. The newspaper’s successes and failures in attempts to manipulate British public opinion during the war are compared with that of The Index, its rival Confederate propaganda weekly headquartered two doors down London’s Fleet Street. Persuading John Bull provides scholars and general readers alike a far greater understanding of the largely unknown Northern newspaper’s motivations and campaigns during the war, as well as an in-depth analysis of The Index which builds greatly on present historiographical discussions of the Southern journal. It also offers new insights into Britain’s roles in the conflict, Anglo-American relations, and mid-Victorian British political and social history. The book is not restricted to discussing the two propaganda machines as its focus—they are used to approach a greater analysis of British public opinion during the American Civil War—both journals were strongly associated with numerous key figures, societies (British and American), and events occurring on both sides of the Atlantic pertaining to the conflict. Although propaganda is only one source from which to tap, the effectiveness of the two lobbyist journals either directly or indirectly impacted other factors influencing Britain’s ultimate decision to remain neutral. This book reveals a fresh new cast of Union supporters in London, in addition to more Confederate sympathizers throughout Britain not previously discussed by scholars. The roles of these new figures, how and why they endorsed the Northern or Southern war effort, is analyzed in detail throughout the chapters, adding greatly to existing historiography.
Author: Michael Turner Publisher: LSU Press ISBN: 0807174491 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 347
Book Description
In this comprehensive examination of British sympathy for the South during and after the American Civil War, Michael J. Turner explores the ideas and activities of A. J. Beresford Hope—one of the leaders of the pro-Confederate lobby in Britain—to provide fresh insight into that seemingly curious allegiance. Hope and his associates cast famed Confederate general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson as the embodiment of southern independence, courage, and honor, elevating him to the status of a hero in Britain. Historians have often noted that economic interest, political attitudes, and concern about Britain’s global reach and geostrategic position led many in the country to embrace the Confederate cause, but they have focused less on the social, cultural, and religious reasons enunciated by Hope and ostensibly represented by Jackson, factors Turner suggests also heightened British affinity for the South. During the war, Hope noticed a tendency among British people to view southerners as heroic warriors in their struggle against the North. He and his pro-southern followers shared and promoted this vision, framing Jackson as the personification of that noble mission and raising the general’s profile in Britain so high that they collected enough funds to construct a memorial to him after his death in 1863. Unveiled twelve years later in Richmond, Virginia, the statue stands today as a remarkable artifact of one of the lesser-known strands of British pro-Confederate ideology. Stonewall Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the Meaning of the American Civil War in Britain serves as the first in-depth analysis of Hope as a leading pro-southern activist and of Jackson’s reputation in Britain during and after the Civil War. It places the conflict in a transnational context that reveals the reasons British citizens formed bonds of solidarity with the southerners whom they perceived shared their social and cultural values.
Author: Adam I. P. Smith Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 0230213529 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
The American Civil War was by far the bloodiest conflict in American history. Arising out of a political crisis over the expansion of slavery, the war set the stage for the emergence of the modern American nation-state. This new interpretation of one of the most mythologized events in modern history combines narrative with analysis and an up-to-date assessment of the state of Civil War scholarship. The American Civil War: - Emphasizes the importance of Northern public opinion in shaping the meaning and outcome of the crisis - Argues that the war exposed deep social and political divisions within, as well as between, North and South - Explores the experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians, and the political and cultural context in which they lived - Sets this distinctively American crisis over slavery and nationhood in the wider context of the nineteenth-century world Concise and authoritative, this is an indispensable introduction to a critical period in modern American history.
Author: Duncan Andrew Campbell
Author: Garnet Wolseley Wolseley (Viscount)
Author: Alfred Grant
Author: Hugh Dubrulle
Author: Garnet Joseph Wolseley Wolseley
Author: Ephraim Douglass Adams
Author: Thomas E. Sebrell
Author: Michael Turner
Author: Adam I. P. Smith
Author: Donaldson Jordan