The Civil War as Global Conflict by ed. David T. Gleeson and Simon Lewis (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Civil War as Global Conflict by ed. David T. Gleeson and Simon Lewis Jesse Tyler Lobbs (bio) The Civil War as Global Conflict. David T. Gleeson and Simon Lewis (eds.), Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-61117-325-3, pp. viii + 308, $49.95. Although the American Civil War was fought on American soil, the war and its variable consequences were played out in a global context. The editors of this collection, the latest in the Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World series, pull together essays that highlight the dominant issues of the Civil War in a world that was increasingly reliant upon transatlantic exchange. The authors’ expanded focus makes it clear that it was not only a crucial moment in the history of the republic, but one in the history of the world. Edward B. Rugemer notes the exceptionality of the American Civil War by comparing the United States with Brazil and Cuba, vestiges of the twin empires of Portugal and Spain, in regards specifically to the politics of slavery. Neither Brazil nor Cuba had developed the fierce sectional rivalry that would augment the debate over slavery in the United States. He notes that “nothing like the slaveless North existed” where slaveholders had “to share power with men whose economic interests did not depend upon slavery” (24). That the United States, a supposed experiment of liberty, could harbor a slave society inside its borders created inescapable sparks that would soon fan the flames of war. Matthew Karp extends this sectional argument to suggest that the South split less as a result of anxieties than their own ambition to see the expansion of cotton. Southern power was continually checked by Northern abolitionism and a desire to keep the peace. The South’s leaders, many of them recognizing that “King Cotton’s throne was propped up entirely by the labor of African slaves” desired to see a Southern Empire that spread slavery by martial or economic force (44). It was this “larger ideological power of Emperor Slavery” that seduced the South. The collection does not entirely focus on slavery, but the international memories of the Civil War in a variety of arenas. The memory of this “American” war heavily affected the development of diplomacy, perceptions of African-Americans and slavery, discussions of racial violence, and, as Lesley Marx shows, any supposed romance in other nations stemming from popular conceptions of the South portrayed in films like David O. Selznick’s Gone with the Wind. The writers of this collection effectively balance local and global contexts to produce a significant text that is invaluable to any scholar interested in research desiring to move away from “pantomime-like North-South, black-white, blue-gray binaries” (5). [End Page 120] Jesse Tyler Lobbs Kansas State University Jesse Tyler Lobbs JESSE TYLER LOBBS is a graduate student in English/Cultural Studies at Kansas State University where he studies film, popular culture, and southern literature. He is currently interested in the relationship between women and the land in southern literature. Copyright © 2015 South Central Review