by Alys F. Beverton
Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2025. . Pp. 308.
Notes, biblio., index. $23.95 [a[er. ISBN: 1469685213
Questioning Republicanism in Mid-Nineteenth Century AmericaThe 1860 Presidential election saw the Democratic Party split into three factions, while the Republicans backed Abraham Lincoln. The result, of course, led to Civil War. Beverton breaks new ground in arguing that the Civil War caused lingering doubt about the nation’s self-image and global purpose. After experiencing over eight decades of rather orderly elections, factionalism – the determination of the “slave power” to dissolve the Union rather than accept any possible threat to their “peculiar institution” – had led America, like Mexico and some other nations, to violence and Civil War, a comparison, Bevard notes, made by some American leaders during the onset of the national crisis and the subsequent Civil War
Beverton often makes comparisons between events in Mexico and the United States. During the ante bellum period, Americans were critical of Mexico, citing the frequent extra-constitutional turnover of the presidency, forty-eight times between 1825 and 1855. Beverton notes how in Mexico the military and the Catholic Church exercised considerable power, disrupting the political system. That in turn alienated the citizens, which eroded confidence in the government. A pattern Beverton suggests affected Americans during and following the Civil War, losing confidence in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Beverton compares the experience of the U.S. Civil War with Mexico’s war against the French “Second Intervention” and their puppet “Empire of Mexico.” She notes that in the post war United States, politicians, academics, and pundits used comparisons with Mexico’s frequent instability as a reminder that the United States, despite its exceptionalism, fell into conflict in the face of challenging issues during the unbridled nineteenth century. Beverton also points out that in the twenty first century, some people -- academics, politicians, laity -- seem unable to realize that in both Mexico and the United States republican government could have easily fallen, leaving the world much different today.
Based on Dr. Beverton’s deeply researched doctoral dissertation, this very scholarly work is an important read for the serious scholar of the era of the Civil War.
---///---
Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, We Shall Conquer or Die, Dranesville, The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism, “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain", The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1, Dalton to Cassville, Thunder in the Harbor, All Roads Led to Gettysburg, The Traitor's Homecoming, A Tempest of Iron and Lead, The Cassville Affairs, Holding Charleston by the Bridle, The Maps of Second Bull Run, Hell by the Acre, Chorus of the Union, Digging All Night and Fighting All Day, The Confederate Resurgence of 1864, Building a House Divided, Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, A Grand Opening Squandered, “No One Wants to be the Last to Die”, A Campaign of Giants, The Battle for Petersburg, Vol. 2, The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, Gettysburg: The Tide Turns, The Second Manassas Campaign, and Fighting for Philadelphia: Forts Mercer and Mifflin, the Battle of Whitemarsh, and the Road to Valley Forge.
---///---
Note: Exceptionalism in Crisis is also available in hardback & e-editions.
StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium
www.nymas.org