By Hugh Dubrule
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.
About the Author
Hugh Dubrulle is
a professor of history at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.
ISBN 978-0807168806, LSU Press, © 2018, Hardcover, 352 pages,
Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliograhpy & Index. $45.50. To
purchase this book click HERE.
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