In recent years historians have recast their examination of the era of the American Civil War and Reconstruction by expanding chronological boundaries or setting the conflict in broader context. It is no longer enough to rest content with the observation that the conflict can be viewed alongside wars of national unification in Italy and Germany or witnessed the emancipation of the Russian serfs as well as enslaved Americans. Now Alan Taylor sets the conflict in a wider study of the North American continent (defined as Canada, Alaska, Mexico, and the Caribbean as well as the United States and indigenous nations, with interested European powers occasionally peeking in) during the mid-nineteenth century, a time when conflict over identity and the shaping of new nation-states was present throughout the region, even if in the end the defeat of the Confederate insurrection proved fundamental to driving events across the entire area.
This volume, the fourth installment in a series of overviews of developments in North America, will prove most useful to those readers who are less than familiar with events in Canada and Mexico. Divided along regional and ethnic lines, the area now known as Canada consisted of various entities debating over the twin issues of unification and imperial status within the British Empire. At the same time, in the wake of the Mexican American War, liberal and conservative forces vied for power in Mexico, which eventually became a target of European intervention, spearheaded by Napoleon III’s France. Spain continued to consider its involvement in the Caribbean, while Russia eventually abandoned its interest in North America. Indigenous nations attempted to check invaders with mixed and ultimately unsatisfactory results. In short, what happened in the United States during this period did not occur in isolation, and what did happen affected other continental and European powers.
Of interest are Taylor’s efforts to give due attention to some lesser-known characters and his colorful portrayal of several better-known ones (one wonders what fans of John A. Macdonald will say of Taylor’s treatment of this key figure in Canadian unification). The cast of characters includes women, free and enslaved Blacks, indigenous leaders, and a few other intriguing individuals, all part of a lucid, engaging, and spritely account. In the end, one must wrestle with the entangled themes of nationalism and liberalism, noting that they don’t always march together. All too often disagreements become disputes that turned violent while people made harsh and sometimes heartless decisions. When it comes to the most notable experiment in securing national identity that perished in flames and spilled so much blood, Taylor points to slavery in all its dimensions as at the heart of white southerners’ efforts to protect their interests through politics, violence, and war. That conflict sometimes overshadows other cases of winners and losers: the choice of cut line at 1873 obscures the fate of the freedpeople at Colfax, Louisiana, that April, the economic panic that fall, and the continuing Modoc Wars, while somehow not addressing the Virginius Affair, which could have accelerated events in the Caribbean by a quarter century. Perhaps the next volume will commence with such events.
Taylor faces a considerable challenge in giving each of these narratives due attention while demonstrating the interplay of issues, patterns, and events. His treatment of the course of United States history through secession, war, and reconstruction will be familiar to most readers. The few minor slips in the narrative (for example, Ulysses S. Grant did not become a Republican in 1860 [p. 202], and once more we read the false claim that he lost some 7,000 men in under an hour at Cold Harbor [p. 316]) do not fundamentally alter or damage the flow of the argument. One might wonder whether the same minor distractions populate other areas of coverage. Taylor is at his best when it demonstrates the interplay of events, especially along the borders of the United States, showing how the outcome of the American Civil War impacted Canadian unification, Mexican liberation, and the gradual withdrawal of Russia and Spain (the latter would not be complete for another generation). The treatment of how Grant and Secretary of State William H. Seward battled over how best to eject the French from Mexico should be fascinating for people unfamiliar with the tale.
Those scholars who advocate for a broader treatment of the American Civil War, including the degree to which it shaped the westward expansion of the United States, should be pleased with this effort, even if they disagree with the details. For those readers looking to expand their knowledge of the period beyond both the battlefield and the boundaries of the United States, this volume will prove helpful indeed.
Brooks D. Simpson is an ASU Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University, as well as the author of many books on the Civil War and its era.
