The U.S. South and Europe: Transatlantic Relations in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

The U.S. South and Europe: Transatlantic Relations in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Edited by Comelis A. van Minnen and Manfred Berg. New Directions in Southern History. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2013. Pp. [vi], 307. $50.00, ISBN 978-0-8131-4308-8.) Coming out of a conference at the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, the Netherlands, this collection of essays by an array of international scholars presents a different view of the American South. Instead of seeing the South as an isolated or unique region of the United States, this work views the South from an international perspective and emphasizes the ways that American southern ideologies and events were linked to, and frequently had influence on, other parts of the world--in this case, Europe--during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Going beyond the obvious international connections of slavery, these essays explore a wide range of links and influences that demonstrate the complex interconnectedness of the South with Europe. The editors hope that this volume will broaden an existing historiographical current that deals with the U.S. South in transatlantic history with more subtle and fine-grained perspectives on encounters between that region and Europe and offer readers a multifaceted view of the political, cultural, and religious dimensions of this transatlantic relationship (pp. 3-4). They succeed on these points, as all the essays show that the variety of interactions and influences of southerners and Europeans played key roles in how each group conceived of their own cultures and their place in the world during these centuries (p. 5). For example, Daniel Nagel explores the group of German immigrants, known as the Forty-Eighters because of their role in the revolutionary movements of 1848, who regarded the American South as a despotic threat to their new homeland and believed that German republican values could transform the Republican Party and save American society. Similarly, Lawrence T. McDonnell proves how antebellum South Carolinians' incorporation of Elizabethan rituals and history went beyond the pleasures of participating in jousting tournaments to helping them define who they were and what they wanted for their future, even if it meant war. Don H. Doyle's examination of Confederate diplomacy during the Civil War goes beyond the usual understanding of its failures and stresses the important role European views of moral and political issues played. Stefano Luconi reminds readers that Italian immigrants to the American South also paid a price for not having light-enough skin and, more important, for competing economically with whites, as some were lynched alongside blacks. Melvyn Stokes examines how the English and French made sense of the films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and Daniel Geary and Jennifer Sutton discuss how the racist White Citizens' Councils criticized European, particularly British, decolonization plans that abandoned the ideas of white rule. Yet, not all the essays are equally strong. Too many, especially those dealing with the perceptions of southern and European travelers in the nineteenth century, are thin or weak in their arguments. A handful of essays in this volume stand out from the rest and really shine, however. Looking at the impact of Ida B. …