The American Civil War: A Reply to Critics

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-108
Author(s):  
John Ashworth

Abstract This essay replies to critics of my earlier piece in Historical Materialism (Volume 19, Issue 4, 2011) which looked at the origins of the American Civil War. The essay re-emphasises the importance of the shift to wage labour in the North, it re-asserts the need to incorporate slave resistance as a key factor in any causal account of the sectional conflict, and it argues that the ultimate northern victory in that conflict should be seen as constituting a ‘bourgeois revolution’. It engages specifically with the criticisms and some of the alternative interpretations offered by Charles Post, Eric Foner and Neil Davidson.

Author(s):  
John Ashworth

This article is divided into four parts. The first recounts the events of the sectional crisis up to the Compromise of 1850. The second looks at factors underlying these events: the relationship between slavery and the Democratic Party, deepening attachment of the South to slavery, the economic and social changes that generated antislavery sentiment in the North (including the shift to wage labor), and the much neglected role of slave resistance in the politics of the sectional conflict. The third shows the decisive impact of these factors in the final decade of peace. The fourth refers to, and criticizes, some current interpretations and misunderstandings of the origins of the Civil War,


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (27) ◽  
pp. 276-299
Author(s):  
JULIANA JARDIM DE OLIVEIRA E OLIVEIRA

Este artigo aborda o tema das relações entre Império e Prová­ncias no Brasil a partir de um olhar internacional e em um contexto de ”crise da década de 1860” e da Guerra Civil nos EUA. Dentro do contexto de uma guerra que tem implicações transnacionais, analisaremos dois focos de debate na Cá¢mara dos Deputados do Brasil que sofreram a influência do conflito nos EUA: as propostas de retomada de produção do algodão e os problemas relativos ao recrutamento de soldados em meio á  guerra. Busca-se demonstrar que a Cá¢mara dos Deputados foi palco importante para que os deputados se posicionassem a partir de diferentes interesses regionais ou provinciais, frente a um contexto internacionalizado. Em suas falas é possá­vel observar que em face ao conflito norte-americano e o contexto internacional, os parlamentares foram capazes de fazer uso de um ”jogo de escalas” para discutirem demandas e interesses regionais, explicitando relações nacionais, regionais e internacionais.Palavras-chave:  Estado Nacional. Guerra Civil. Prová­ncias.  PROVINCIAL INTERESTS IN BRAZIL DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR:  a transnational view of the relationship between the Empire and the ProvincesAbstract:  This paper discusses the relationship between the Empire as a central power and the Provinces in Brazil from an international perspective within the context of the ”crisis of the 1860s” and the American Civil War. In view of this national conflict with transnational implications, we will focus on two debates in the Brazilian Lower House of Congress: the debates over the investments in cotton production and the army recruitment in times of war. The Lower House was an important environment for Brazilian Congressmen to defend different regional or provincial demands, in view of an internationalized context. In their speeches it is possible to assert that, when faced with the North American conflict and the international context, congressmen were able to use a game of ”scales” to expose their regional demands and interests, highlighting national, regional, and international relationships.Keywords:  Civil War. National State. Provinces.  INTERESES PROVINCIALES EN BRASIL EN LOS Aá‘OS DE LA GUERRA CIVIL NORTEAMERICANA:  una mirada transnacional sobre relaciones entre el Imperio y las ProvinciasResumen:  Este articulo trata del tema de las relaciones entre imperio y provincias de Brasil a partir de la mirada internacional en el contexto de la ”crisis de la década de 1860” y de la Guerra Civil de los EEUU. Dentro del contexto de una guerra de carácter internacional, analizaremos dos enfoques de debate en la Cámara de los Diputados de Brasil: las propuestas de retomadas en la producción del algodón y los problemas relacionados al reclutamiento de soldados en el medio de la guerra. Es objetivo probar que la Cámara de los Diputados fue un escenario importante para que los diputados se posicionaran a partir de diferentes intereses regionales o provinciales, frente a un contexto internacionalizado. En sus declaraciones es posible observar que ante el conflicto norteamericano y el contexto internacional, los parlamentarios fueron capaces de hacer uso de un ”juego de escalas” para discutir demandas e intereses regionales, explicitando relaciones nacionales, regionales e internacionales.Palabras clave:  Estado Nacional. Guerra Civil. Provincias.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 92-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Foner

Abstract The four essays by Ashworth, Blackburn, Nimtz and Post all make important contributions to our understanding of the causes and consequences of the American Civil War, and to modern analysis of these questions within a Marxist tradition. Although they differ among themselves on key issues, they direct attention to problems too often neglected by other historians: the rôle of class-conflict within North and South in the coming of the War; the part played by slave-resistance in the sectional conflict; the nature of the economic relationship between slave and free economies; and a shift in control of the national state as an enduring result of the conflict.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Pollock

James Baxter Bean published a series of articles in the Southern Dental Examiner in 1862 describing his work with “plaster and its manipulations.” This early experience included a new way of managing jaw fractures, with customized splints uniquely based on pretraumatic occlusion. Bean's oral splints and their method of construction, using an articulator, became the standard of care in the Atlanta region during the American Civil War and, by 1864, throughout The Confederacy. In short course, Bean's approach also swept The Union, following in large part the efforts of a colleague in the North, T.B. Gunning. Thus, what began in the early 1860s in a dental laboratory in the southeast swept the continental United States and revolutionized management of jaw-fractures during, and immediately after, the American Civil War.


2017 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-219
Author(s):  
Michael J. Turner

This article focuses on some of the religious factors that shaped the pro-Southern lobby in Britain during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. British opinion cannot be explained only in terms of class and party. In exploring other determinants, the ideas and activities of wealthy High Churchman and Conservative politician Beresford Hope offer promising avenues of inquiry, for Hope saw in the American Union, and Southern secession, a religious dimension, represented most clearly in the Episcopal Church. To the more familiar (to historians) reasons why the South gained support in Britain—relating to economic and political interests—Hope added a deeper commitment arising from a sense of cultural affinity (the “Englishness” of the South) and from religious conviction (to him the Church, and indeed Christianity, seemed stronger in the South than in the North). This indicates a belief that Britain and the South were bound together by common Christian civilization.


Author(s):  
James P. Byrd

This epilogue examines the central themes of the Bible in the Civil War, including confidence in clear analogies between biblical texts and the war; faith in the war’s redemptive outcome, which, for many in the North, charged the United States with a divine mission in the world; and above all, reverence for the sacred sacrifice of the dead, whose blood had “consecrated” the nation. Through all the death and injury, endless debates over slavery, defenses of secession, and patriotism, the Bible was a constant reference. The American Civil War may not have been “a war of religion,” James McPherson wrote, but we should not forget “the degree to which it was a religious war.” In a similar way, the American Civil War was not primarily a war over the Bible, but it was a biblical war for many Americans.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Edwards

Abstract On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War, Historical Materialism has brought together some of the most significant Marxist scholars working in this area to debate the issues. This text introduces some of the questions raised by the Civil War and Southern slavery for Marxists and introduces the essays that follow.


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