******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
---------- Forwarded message --------- From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 1:47 PM Subject: H-Net Review [H-Nationalism]: Bellows on Downs, 'The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic' To: <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> Gregory P. Downs. The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic. The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era Series. Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 2019. 232 pp. $27.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4696-5273-3. Reviewed by Amanda Bellows (The New School) Published on H-Nationalism (March, 2020) Commissioned by Evan C. Rothera In his thought-provoking new book, _The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic_, Gregory P. Downs presents a compelling new interpretation of the US Civil War (1861-65). He argues that the war was "not merely civil--meaning national--and not solely a war"; rather, it was a transnational event that was "part of an international crisis" and "was fought, in part, over competing visions of the world's future" (p. 1). Furthermore, while some scholars diminish the extent to which the Civil War altered the course of national development, Downs contends that historians should think of "the Greater Civil War as a revolution" (p. 4). By doing so, they will gain a clearer understanding of the war's domestic and transnational consequences. Downs is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis where he studies nineteenth-century US political and cultural history. He joins a distinguished group of scholars who have sought to place the history of the US Civil War era in global perspective in the last two decades. Historians Richard Blackett, Matthew Clavin, Enrico Dal Lago, Don Doyle, Gerald Horne, Gale Kenny, Caleb McDaniel, Edward Rugemer, and Brian Schoen have recently written monographs that examine the international origins and outcomes of the war or emancipation. In writing his book, Downs incorporated primary sources from archives located in Cuba, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. By setting the Civil War and its aftermath in broader international context, he seeks to show through his methodological approach that the conflict was "an externally oriented revolution" that "no longer looks moderate or restorative, in its leaders' intentions, in its methods, or in its effects" (p. 57). Downs's central argument relates to the definition of the Civil War as a "second American revolution" in US history (p. 2). The _New York Herald _used the phrase to describe the Civil War in March 1869 just prior to Ulysses S. Grant's presidential inauguration. Downs contends that it is an apt term because of the Civil War's nationally and internationally transformative political and social consequences. In the domestic context, Downs focuses on the federal government's use of force during the 1860s via "martial law, military governments, and Washington ultimatums to force states to transform the Constitution in ways unimaginable in the 1850s" (p. 3). Postwar legislation and constitutional changes permanently reshaped the nation, particularly through the abolition of slavery and the reformation of labor relations via a process he describes as "bloody constitutionalism" (p. 6). Downs also highlights the international impact of the abolition of American slavery, an event that would reverberate throughout the Atlantic World, especially in regions where slavery still existed. Ultimately, he argues, the "second American revolution" led to significant changes that included the liberation of four million enslaved African Americans, the reduction of the Southern planter class's power, and the production of a revolutionary wave that "reverberated back to Cuba, Mexico, and Spain" (p. 7). _The Second American Revolution_ is composed of an introduction, three chapters, and an afterword that assess the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the rise of the Jim Crow era. In the introduction, "The Second American Revolution?," Downs explores the notion of the Civil War as a revolutionary event and presents his central arguments. Next, in chapter 1, "The Second American Republic," he examines the role of federal force in securing the constitutional amendments that would lead to the acquisition of critical civil rights for African Americans during the period of Reconstruction. Downs argues that "Republicans turned to military power ... to revolutionize Southern society ... [and] to enact a constitutional revolution" (p. 13). He compares these changes to those wrought by other revolutions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and also studies the ways Civil War actors understood their own roles. Finally, Downs reflects on the ways Americans' collective memories of the Civil War era and Reconstruction might change if people begin to accept more widely the idea of the Civil War as a second American revolution. In chapter 2, "The Civil War the World Made," he examines the Civil War in international context. He argues that the war was "part of a set of interconnected rebellions that spread from Cuba and Spain to the United States over the 1850s, rebellions that emerged from common struggles over the role of slavery" (p. 56). Those who sought to defend slavery in the United States made arguments in favor of its preservation that had global implications, particularly for Cuba and Brazil, where slavery was still entrenched. Downs also highlights the role of Cuban revolutionaries in shaping the debates about slavery, independence, and revolution in the United States during the antebellum era. In chapter 3, "The World the Civil War Might Have Made," Downs explores the ways the Civil War "both raised and dashed hopes for a new Atlantic World." By studying developments in the United States, Cuba, and Brazil during the 1870s, he concludes that, "while the Civil War created expectations for the end of global slavery and the triumph of democracy, it did not in fact lead directly to either outcome" (p. 97). Political and civil liberty would not be immediately realized in the broader Atlantic World. Finally, in the afterword, "A Finished Revolution: The Sorrow of Stubborn Hours," he reflects on the causes and consequences of Reconstruction's end, or the culmination of what he calls the second American revolution. _The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic_ is an innovative book that contains a clear, original argument about defining the Civil War as a revolutionary event. Furthermore, it is an expansive monograph that contains new insights about the transnational nature of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Downs's work will undoubtedly spark stimulating debates and important conversations in the years to come about the meaning of one of the most significant and transformative periods in US history. _Amanda Brickell Bellows is a lecturer at The New School._ Citation: Amanda Bellows. Review of Downs, Gregory P., _The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic_. H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews. March, 2020. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54854 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. -- Best regards, Andrew Stewart _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
