George P. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195156287
- eISBN:
- 9780199872169
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195156285.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book asserts that the Civil War marks the end of one era of American legal history, and the beginning of another. Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysberg Address is viewed as the beginning of a new ...
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This book asserts that the Civil War marks the end of one era of American legal history, and the beginning of another. Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysberg Address is viewed as the beginning of a new kind of “covert” constitutional law – one with a stronger emphasis on equality in the wake of the abolition of slavery – which was legally established in the Amendments made to the U.S. Constitution between 1865 and 1870. The author asserts that the influence of this “secret constitution”, which has varied in degree from Reconstruction to the present day, is visible in the rulings of the Supreme Court on issues hinging on personal freedom, equality, and discrimination.Less
This book asserts that the Civil War marks the end of one era of American legal history, and the beginning of another. Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysberg Address is viewed as the beginning of a new kind of “covert” constitutional law – one with a stronger emphasis on equality in the wake of the abolition of slavery – which was legally established in the Amendments made to the U.S. Constitution between 1865 and 1870. The author asserts that the influence of this “secret constitution”, which has varied in degree from Reconstruction to the present day, is visible in the rulings of the Supreme Court on issues hinging on personal freedom, equality, and discrimination.
Brian Breed, Cynthia Damon, and Andreola Rossi (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195389579
- eISBN:
- 9780199866496
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389579.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This volume offers a consideration of the various ways in which Rome's civil wars were perceived, experienced, and represented by Romans and others across a variety of media and historical periods. ...
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This volume offers a consideration of the various ways in which Rome's civil wars were perceived, experienced, and represented by Romans and others across a variety of media and historical periods. Why did the Romans subject themselves to civil conflict repeatedly over the long course of their history? Is there something distinctive about the nature and quality of a Roman civil war? How does civil war insinuate itself into the Roman worldview and into what it means to be Roman? What influence does the Roman propensity for civil war have over how other cultures define Rome? The link between discordia and Rome is persistent, and the defining role of, or, to take a longer view, the creative impetus given by civil war's conflict and destruction manifested itself in a variety of areas of Roman experience: politics, ethics, society, literature, to name some of those examined here.Less
This volume offers a consideration of the various ways in which Rome's civil wars were perceived, experienced, and represented by Romans and others across a variety of media and historical periods. Why did the Romans subject themselves to civil conflict repeatedly over the long course of their history? Is there something distinctive about the nature and quality of a Roman civil war? How does civil war insinuate itself into the Roman worldview and into what it means to be Roman? What influence does the Roman propensity for civil war have over how other cultures define Rome? The link between discordia and Rome is persistent, and the defining role of, or, to take a longer view, the creative impetus given by civil war's conflict and destruction manifested itself in a variety of areas of Roman experience: politics, ethics, society, literature, to name some of those examined here.
Gary Scott Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195300604
- eISBN:
- 9780199785285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300604.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Like George Washington’s, Lincoln’s faith has been closely scrutinized, hotly debated, and often misunderstood. Both men attributed their success in war to divine providence, proclaimed days of ...
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Like George Washington’s, Lincoln’s faith has been closely scrutinized, hotly debated, and often misunderstood. Both men attributed their success in war to divine providence, proclaimed days of public thanksgiving and prayer as president, rarely mentioned Jesus, and were intensely private about their personal beliefs. Lincoln was never baptized, never received communion, and never joined a church, but he had a thorough knowledge of the Bible and peppered his speeches with biblical references and allusions. Lincoln cited the Scriptures and discussed theologically significant questions in his addresses more than the avowedly Christian statesmen of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some friends and associates claimed he remained an unbeliever all his life who attended church and employed religious language to win voters, gain support for policies, and convince Americans to trust him. Others who knew the 16th president equally well contended that he became an orthodox Christian who regularly read the Bible, prayed habitually, and frequently used scriptural passages and illustrations to express his personal convictions. Many investigators conclude that in his later years Lincoln had a profound sense of God’s presence, accepted many central scriptural tenets, and valiantly strove to follow Christian ethics. Through years of wrestling with God, Lincoln developed a deep but unconventional faith. Although he did not become a born-again evangelical, he became increasingly receptive to Protestant orthodoxy. More than any other 19th-century president, he became known for seeking to base public policies on scriptural principles. Lincoln’s religious views helped shape his political philosophy and actions, most notably the way he dealt with slavery and interpreted the Civil War. After his assassination, Lincoln was deeply mourned and frequently eulogized as a martyr who offered a redeeming sacrifice for the nation’s sins. He became the second great hero of the nation’s civil religion.Less
Like George Washington’s, Lincoln’s faith has been closely scrutinized, hotly debated, and often misunderstood. Both men attributed their success in war to divine providence, proclaimed days of public thanksgiving and prayer as president, rarely mentioned Jesus, and were intensely private about their personal beliefs. Lincoln was never baptized, never received communion, and never joined a church, but he had a thorough knowledge of the Bible and peppered his speeches with biblical references and allusions. Lincoln cited the Scriptures and discussed theologically significant questions in his addresses more than the avowedly Christian statesmen of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some friends and associates claimed he remained an unbeliever all his life who attended church and employed religious language to win voters, gain support for policies, and convince Americans to trust him. Others who knew the 16th president equally well contended that he became an orthodox Christian who regularly read the Bible, prayed habitually, and frequently used scriptural passages and illustrations to express his personal convictions. Many investigators conclude that in his later years Lincoln had a profound sense of God’s presence, accepted many central scriptural tenets, and valiantly strove to follow Christian ethics. Through years of wrestling with God, Lincoln developed a deep but unconventional faith. Although he did not become a born-again evangelical, he became increasingly receptive to Protestant orthodoxy. More than any other 19th-century president, he became known for seeking to base public policies on scriptural principles. Lincoln’s religious views helped shape his political philosophy and actions, most notably the way he dealt with slavery and interpreted the Civil War. After his assassination, Lincoln was deeply mourned and frequently eulogized as a martyr who offered a redeeming sacrifice for the nation’s sins. He became the second great hero of the nation’s civil religion.
Adam I. P. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195188653
- eISBN:
- 9780199868346
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188653.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
During the Civil War, Northerners fought each other in elections with almost as much zeal as they fought Southern rebels on the battlefield. Yet politicians and voters alike claimed that partisanship ...
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During the Civil War, Northerners fought each other in elections with almost as much zeal as they fought Southern rebels on the battlefield. Yet politicians and voters alike claimed that partisanship was dangerous in a time of national crisis. This book challenges the prevailing view that political processes in the North somehow helped the Union be more stable and effective in the war. Instead, it argues, early efforts to suspend party politics collapsed in the face of divisions over slavery and the purpose of the war. At the same time, new contexts for political mobilization, such as the army and the avowedly nonpartisan Union Leagues, undermined conventional partisan practices. The administration's supporters soon used the power of antiparty discourse to their advantage by connecting their own antislavery arguments to a powerful nationalist ideology. This book offers a reinterpretation of Northern wartime politics that challenges the “party period paradigm” in American political history and reveals the many ways in which the unique circumstances of war altered the political calculations and behavior of politicians and voters alike. As this book shows, beneath the superficial unity lay profound differences about the implications of the war for the kind of nation that the United States was to become.Less
During the Civil War, Northerners fought each other in elections with almost as much zeal as they fought Southern rebels on the battlefield. Yet politicians and voters alike claimed that partisanship was dangerous in a time of national crisis. This book challenges the prevailing view that political processes in the North somehow helped the Union be more stable and effective in the war. Instead, it argues, early efforts to suspend party politics collapsed in the face of divisions over slavery and the purpose of the war. At the same time, new contexts for political mobilization, such as the army and the avowedly nonpartisan Union Leagues, undermined conventional partisan practices. The administration's supporters soon used the power of antiparty discourse to their advantage by connecting their own antislavery arguments to a powerful nationalist ideology. This book offers a reinterpretation of Northern wartime politics that challenges the “party period paradigm” in American political history and reveals the many ways in which the unique circumstances of war altered the political calculations and behavior of politicians and voters alike. As this book shows, beneath the superficial unity lay profound differences about the implications of the war for the kind of nation that the United States was to become.
Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823232024
- eISBN:
- 9780823240494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823232024.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Through informative case studies, this illuminating book remaps considerations of the Civil War and reconstruction era by charting the ways in which the needs, interests, and ...
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Through informative case studies, this illuminating book remaps considerations of the Civil War and reconstruction era by charting the ways in which the needs, interests, and experiences of going to war, fighting it, and making sense of it informed and directed politics, public life, social change, and cultural memory after the war's end. In doing so, it shows that the war did not actually end with Lee's surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination in Washington. As the chapters show, major issues remained, including defining freedom; rebuilding the South; integrating women and blacks into postwar society, culture, and politics; deciding the place of the military in public life; demobilizing or redeploying soldiers; organizing a new party system; and determining the scope and meanings of union.Less
Through informative case studies, this illuminating book remaps considerations of the Civil War and reconstruction era by charting the ways in which the needs, interests, and experiences of going to war, fighting it, and making sense of it informed and directed politics, public life, social change, and cultural memory after the war's end. In doing so, it shows that the war did not actually end with Lee's surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination in Washington. As the chapters show, major issues remained, including defining freedom; rebuilding the South; integrating women and blacks into postwar society, culture, and politics; deciding the place of the military in public life; demobilizing or redeploying soldiers; organizing a new party system; and determining the scope and meanings of union.
Brian W. Breed, Cynthia Damon, and Andreola Rossi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195389579
- eISBN:
- 9780199866496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389579.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter sketches the importance of discordia in the Roman imagination and outlines the way the volume's chapters approach the topic of Rome's civil wars in a variety of media. It also explains ...
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This chapter sketches the importance of discordia in the Roman imagination and outlines the way the volume's chapters approach the topic of Rome's civil wars in a variety of media. It also explains the organization of the chapters.Less
This chapter sketches the importance of discordia in the Roman imagination and outlines the way the volume's chapters approach the topic of Rome's civil wars in a variety of media. It also explains the organization of the chapters.
Paloma Aguilar
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240906
- eISBN:
- 9780191598869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240906.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
In all processes of political change the emerging regime must face the difficult task of deciding what to do with the legacies of the former dictatorship, which people were working for the previous ...
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In all processes of political change the emerging regime must face the difficult task of deciding what to do with the legacies of the former dictatorship, which people were working for the previous civil and military administration preserve, and whether or not to put on trial those responsible for having violated human rights under the previous regime. This chapter analyses what was done, and what was deliberately put aside in the Spanish case. The Spanish transition to democracy has been praised as mainly exemplary, and as demonstrating success in the stabilization of the new democratic regime. However, the final positive result should not obscure the fact that, because of the correlation of forces of the transitional period, and also because of the traumatic collective memory of the Spanish civil war, the victims of the Francoist repression were not properly rehabilitated and the dictatorship was not condemned in the Spanish parliament until 2002. In fact, a very broad Amnesty Law was passed in 1977 that not only allowed all ETA prisoners to get out of jail, but also impeded the judicial revision of the dictatorial past. None of these limitations have impeded the consolidation of democracy in Spain, but some important sectors of society feel that justice has not been done, which explains the very recent political, social and even cultural initiatives to face the authoritarian past.Less
In all processes of political change the emerging regime must face the difficult task of deciding what to do with the legacies of the former dictatorship, which people were working for the previous civil and military administration preserve, and whether or not to put on trial those responsible for having violated human rights under the previous regime. This chapter analyses what was done, and what was deliberately put aside in the Spanish case. The Spanish transition to democracy has been praised as mainly exemplary, and as demonstrating success in the stabilization of the new democratic regime. However, the final positive result should not obscure the fact that, because of the correlation of forces of the transitional period, and also because of the traumatic collective memory of the Spanish civil war, the victims of the Francoist repression were not properly rehabilitated and the dictatorship was not condemned in the Spanish parliament until 2002. In fact, a very broad Amnesty Law was passed in 1977 that not only allowed all ETA prisoners to get out of jail, but also impeded the judicial revision of the dictatorial past. None of these limitations have impeded the consolidation of democracy in Spain, but some important sectors of society feel that justice has not been done, which explains the very recent political, social and even cultural initiatives to face the authoritarian past.
Joy Damousi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266663
- eISBN:
- 9780191905384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266663.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In October 1949, in the closing month of the Greek Civil War, a young soldier named Pandelis Klinkatsis was killed stepping on a landmine in Northern Greece. Pandelis was my uncle. The announcement ...
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In October 1949, in the closing month of the Greek Civil War, a young soldier named Pandelis Klinkatsis was killed stepping on a landmine in Northern Greece. Pandelis was my uncle. The announcement of his death devastated his immediate family including my mother Sophia. I focus this chapter on the individual story of the loss of my uncle and my mother’s grief to cast a wider canvas on the emotions of war and their enduring legacies. This story explores the repercussions of war such as migration, the impact on sibling and romantic love, absence and separation during and after war. It examines the implications of these displacements in writing an emotional history of war. Such a history is typically conveyed through oral storytelling, and oral history forms the basis of the narrative. But there are two other ways in which the memory and emotion of war experience are kept alive in a transnational world. The first expression is in the form of photography, the second is the role grave sites play in the nexus between mourning and memory over time. Pandelis’s story takes us to Greece, Austria, America, and Australia. I argue that it encapsulates the complex geographical and emotional fragments created by war, which are manifest in love and death, mourning and memory, in a transnational context across four countries. Both the Second World War and the Greek Civil War created a landscape of emotions—the legacies of which are indelible—and continue to the present day.Less
In October 1949, in the closing month of the Greek Civil War, a young soldier named Pandelis Klinkatsis was killed stepping on a landmine in Northern Greece. Pandelis was my uncle. The announcement of his death devastated his immediate family including my mother Sophia. I focus this chapter on the individual story of the loss of my uncle and my mother’s grief to cast a wider canvas on the emotions of war and their enduring legacies. This story explores the repercussions of war such as migration, the impact on sibling and romantic love, absence and separation during and after war. It examines the implications of these displacements in writing an emotional history of war. Such a history is typically conveyed through oral storytelling, and oral history forms the basis of the narrative. But there are two other ways in which the memory and emotion of war experience are kept alive in a transnational world. The first expression is in the form of photography, the second is the role grave sites play in the nexus between mourning and memory over time. Pandelis’s story takes us to Greece, Austria, America, and Australia. I argue that it encapsulates the complex geographical and emotional fragments created by war, which are manifest in love and death, mourning and memory, in a transnational context across four countries. Both the Second World War and the Greek Civil War created a landscape of emotions—the legacies of which are indelible—and continue to the present day.
Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152684
- eISBN:
- 9781400840526
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152684.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter attempts to integrate two different strands of research on political violence, developing a theoretical model to analyze the common roots of repression and civil war. Under specific ...
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This chapter attempts to integrate two different strands of research on political violence, developing a theoretical model to analyze the common roots of repression and civil war. Under specific assumptions about the conflict technology, it shows that peace, repression (one-sided violence), and civil war (two-sided violence) become ordered states depending on a common underlying latent variable, which is shifted by shocks to the value of public goods, wages, aid, and resource rents. But these effects only emerge when political institutions do not provide sufficient checks and balances on the ruling group or adequate protection for those excluded from power. The chapter also shows how to start bridging the gap between theoretical modeling and econometric testing. Under specific assumptions on what can be observed, the predictions from the model can be taken to the data by estimating either an ordered logit or the conditional probability of transition from peace to violence or from non-civil war to civil war. The empirical strategy here is much sharper than in earlier chapters and shows that the kind of theory we are building can help us approach the data in a specific way.Less
This chapter attempts to integrate two different strands of research on political violence, developing a theoretical model to analyze the common roots of repression and civil war. Under specific assumptions about the conflict technology, it shows that peace, repression (one-sided violence), and civil war (two-sided violence) become ordered states depending on a common underlying latent variable, which is shifted by shocks to the value of public goods, wages, aid, and resource rents. But these effects only emerge when political institutions do not provide sufficient checks and balances on the ruling group or adequate protection for those excluded from power. The chapter also shows how to start bridging the gap between theoretical modeling and econometric testing. Under specific assumptions on what can be observed, the predictions from the model can be taken to the data by estimating either an ordered logit or the conditional probability of transition from peace to violence or from non-civil war to civil war. The empirical strategy here is much sharper than in earlier chapters and shows that the kind of theory we are building can help us approach the data in a specific way.
Gil Loescher
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199246915
- eISBN:
- 9780191599781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199246912.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The 1990s ushered in a new era in which humanitarian issues played a historically unprecedented role in international politics. Refugee movements in northern Iraq, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, and ...
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The 1990s ushered in a new era in which humanitarian issues played a historically unprecedented role in international politics. Refugee movements in northern Iraq, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, and Haiti were the subject of increasing discussion in political and military fora such as the UN Security Council and NATO. Forced displacements were also at the centre of crises in the African Great Lakes region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Albania, Kosovo, and East Timor. The eighth High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, initiated changes within UNHCR that permitted it to respond to internal displacements in ongoing civil wars as well as to promote mass repatriation movements to countries of origin in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. These events have significant implications for the protection of refugees and for the future of humanitarianism.Less
The 1990s ushered in a new era in which humanitarian issues played a historically unprecedented role in international politics. Refugee movements in northern Iraq, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, and Haiti were the subject of increasing discussion in political and military fora such as the UN Security Council and NATO. Forced displacements were also at the centre of crises in the African Great Lakes region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Albania, Kosovo, and East Timor. The eighth High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, initiated changes within UNHCR that permitted it to respond to internal displacements in ongoing civil wars as well as to promote mass repatriation movements to countries of origin in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. These events have significant implications for the protection of refugees and for the future of humanitarianism.
Wayne Wei‐siang Hsieh
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses the relationship between evangelical Protestantism and the American Civil War through the lives of Abraham Lincoln and William T. Sherman. The jeremiad script of evangelical ...
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This chapter discusses the relationship between evangelical Protestantism and the American Civil War through the lives of Abraham Lincoln and William T. Sherman. The jeremiad script of evangelical Protestantism played a major role in sustaining both the Union's and the Confederacy's war efforts, even while Abraham Lincoln's own views on Providence evolved in a manner both similar to and distinctive from that of his contemporaries. Sherman, in contrast, represented the war's potential for fomenting godlessness, with the challenge his Deification of the State represented to conventional nineteenth‐century Christianity. While evangelicals proved equal to the task of fending off this heterodoxy in the short term, the military and political forces Sherman represented had lasting effects on some postwar figures like Oliver Wendell Holmes, and in historical terms, they cannot be ignored.Less
This chapter discusses the relationship between evangelical Protestantism and the American Civil War through the lives of Abraham Lincoln and William T. Sherman. The jeremiad script of evangelical Protestantism played a major role in sustaining both the Union's and the Confederacy's war efforts, even while Abraham Lincoln's own views on Providence evolved in a manner both similar to and distinctive from that of his contemporaries. Sherman, in contrast, represented the war's potential for fomenting godlessness, with the challenge his Deification of the State represented to conventional nineteenth‐century Christianity. While evangelicals proved equal to the task of fending off this heterodoxy in the short term, the military and political forces Sherman represented had lasting effects on some postwar figures like Oliver Wendell Holmes, and in historical terms, they cannot be ignored.
SUSAN-MARY GRANT
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264355
- eISBN:
- 9780191734052
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264355.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This lecture presents the text of the speech about masculinity, disability, and race in the American Civil War delivered by the author at the 2007 Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American History ...
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This lecture presents the text of the speech about masculinity, disability, and race in the American Civil War delivered by the author at the 2007 Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American History held at the British Academy. It discusses the centrality of the Civil War to America's national history, and also highlights the role of the dead in the construction both of Northern/Union nationalism and the Southern civic religion.Less
This lecture presents the text of the speech about masculinity, disability, and race in the American Civil War delivered by the author at the 2007 Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American History held at the British Academy. It discusses the centrality of the Civil War to America's national history, and also highlights the role of the dead in the construction both of Northern/Union nationalism and the Southern civic religion.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195321289
- eISBN:
- 9780199869855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321289.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the important role played by the jeremiad in antebellum and Civil War America. It begins with the national day of fasting proclaimed by President James Buchanan in January 1861. ...
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This chapter explores the important role played by the jeremiad in antebellum and Civil War America. It begins with the national day of fasting proclaimed by President James Buchanan in January 1861. Nineteenth‐century Jeremiahs lamented their society's moral state, looked to the example of the nation's founders, and called their fellow Americans to reform. Surrounding these narratives of decline were deeply‐rooted ideas of American chosenness, often fostered by varieties of millennialism that saw the United States as integral to the accomplishment of God's purposes in history. The chapter also explores two rival narratives to the mainstream American jeremiad during these years: an African‐American jeremiad that called down God's justice on white oppressors, and the Southern “Lost Cause” narrative, which viewed the South as a quintessential Christian civilization and lamented its defeat as a sign of God's disapproval of Southern immorality. The chapter concludes with an examination of Abraham Lincoln's unconventional employment of the jeremiad tradition.Less
This chapter explores the important role played by the jeremiad in antebellum and Civil War America. It begins with the national day of fasting proclaimed by President James Buchanan in January 1861. Nineteenth‐century Jeremiahs lamented their society's moral state, looked to the example of the nation's founders, and called their fellow Americans to reform. Surrounding these narratives of decline were deeply‐rooted ideas of American chosenness, often fostered by varieties of millennialism that saw the United States as integral to the accomplishment of God's purposes in history. The chapter also explores two rival narratives to the mainstream American jeremiad during these years: an African‐American jeremiad that called down God's justice on white oppressors, and the Southern “Lost Cause” narrative, which viewed the South as a quintessential Christian civilization and lamented its defeat as a sign of God's disapproval of Southern immorality. The chapter concludes with an examination of Abraham Lincoln's unconventional employment of the jeremiad tradition.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195321289
- eISBN:
- 9780199869855
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321289.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book traces the emergence and development of the American jeremiad, a form of political rhetoric that laments the nation's decline from a virtuous past and calls it to repentance and renewal. ...
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This book traces the emergence and development of the American jeremiad, a form of political rhetoric that laments the nation's decline from a virtuous past and calls it to repentance and renewal. Employed by Americans of all political persuasions since the earliest days of settlement, the jeremiad has proven to be a powerful way of invoking the American past in order to chart a brighter American future. Part I of the book focuses on three especially important episodes in the jeremiad's history: early New England, Civil War America, and the rise of the Christian Right. Part II provides a critical analysis of the jeremiad's role in the American “culture wars” and politics more generally. In seeking to place the American past in the service of the American future, the book argues, the jeremiad takes not one form, but two: a traditionalist jeremiad whose view of the past depends heavily on claims about how things used to be, and emphasizes the importance of preserving concrete aspects of the past as we move toward an uncertain future; and a progressive jeremiad, which views the past as a repository of emancipatory principles articulated at the founding but never fully realized in practice. Acknowledging that both traditionalist and progressive jeremiads are deeply entwined with the nation's history, the book concludes with a call for a revived progressive jeremiad as most compatible with the deep diversity—cultural, religious, political, philosophical—that characterizes American society at the dawn of the twenty‐first century.Less
This book traces the emergence and development of the American jeremiad, a form of political rhetoric that laments the nation's decline from a virtuous past and calls it to repentance and renewal. Employed by Americans of all political persuasions since the earliest days of settlement, the jeremiad has proven to be a powerful way of invoking the American past in order to chart a brighter American future. Part I of the book focuses on three especially important episodes in the jeremiad's history: early New England, Civil War America, and the rise of the Christian Right. Part II provides a critical analysis of the jeremiad's role in the American “culture wars” and politics more generally. In seeking to place the American past in the service of the American future, the book argues, the jeremiad takes not one form, but two: a traditionalist jeremiad whose view of the past depends heavily on claims about how things used to be, and emphasizes the importance of preserving concrete aspects of the past as we move toward an uncertain future; and a progressive jeremiad, which views the past as a repository of emancipatory principles articulated at the founding but never fully realized in practice. Acknowledging that both traditionalist and progressive jeremiads are deeply entwined with the nation's history, the book concludes with a call for a revived progressive jeremiad as most compatible with the deep diversity—cultural, religious, political, philosophical—that characterizes American society at the dawn of the twenty‐first century.
Austin Carson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691181769
- eISBN:
- 9780691184241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181769.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter analyzes foreign combat participation in the Spanish Civil War. Fought from 1936 to 1939, the war hosted covert interventions by Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. The chapter ...
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This chapter analyzes foreign combat participation in the Spanish Civil War. Fought from 1936 to 1939, the war hosted covert interventions by Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. The chapter leverages variation in intervention form among those three states, as well as variation over time in the Italian intervention, to assess the role of escalation concerns and limited war in the use of secrecy. Adolf Hitler's German intervention provides especially interesting support for a theory on escalation control. An unusually candid view of Berlin's thinking suggests that Germany managed the visibility of its covert “Condor Legion” with an eye toward the relative power of domestic hawkish voices in France and Great Britain. The chapter also shows the unique role of direct communication and international organizations. The Non-Intervention Committee, an ad hoc organization that allowed private discussions of foreign involvement in Spain, helped the three interveners and Britain and France keep the war limited in ways that echo key claims of the theory.Less
This chapter analyzes foreign combat participation in the Spanish Civil War. Fought from 1936 to 1939, the war hosted covert interventions by Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. The chapter leverages variation in intervention form among those three states, as well as variation over time in the Italian intervention, to assess the role of escalation concerns and limited war in the use of secrecy. Adolf Hitler's German intervention provides especially interesting support for a theory on escalation control. An unusually candid view of Berlin's thinking suggests that Germany managed the visibility of its covert “Condor Legion” with an eye toward the relative power of domestic hawkish voices in France and Great Britain. The chapter also shows the unique role of direct communication and international organizations. The Non-Intervention Committee, an ad hoc organization that allowed private discussions of foreign involvement in Spain, helped the three interveners and Britain and France keep the war limited in ways that echo key claims of the theory.
Tim Stover
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644087
- eISBN:
- 9780191741951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644087.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the ...
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This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a thesis that sets it apart from the largely ‘pessimistic’ readings of other scholars. An important element of Valerius' poetics of recovery is an engagement with Lucan's iconoclastic Bellum Civile, a poem whose deconstructive tendencies offered Valerius a poetic point of departure for his attempt to renew the epic genre in the context of the political renewal triggered by Vespasian's accession to power. Thus, a secondary purpose of this study is to examine Valerius' response to his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan, a topic that has been woefully understudied. Accordingly, this work interprets Valerius' Argonauticaas a reaction to two primary stimuli, one poetic — Lucan's deconstructive epic of civil war — and one political — Vespasian's restoration of order following the destructive civil war of 68–69. The approach is thus both formalist and historicist: the book seeks not only to elucidate Valerius' dynamic appropriation of Lucan but also to associate the Argonautica's formal gestures with a specific socio-political context.Less
This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a thesis that sets it apart from the largely ‘pessimistic’ readings of other scholars. An important element of Valerius' poetics of recovery is an engagement with Lucan's iconoclastic Bellum Civile, a poem whose deconstructive tendencies offered Valerius a poetic point of departure for his attempt to renew the epic genre in the context of the political renewal triggered by Vespasian's accession to power. Thus, a secondary purpose of this study is to examine Valerius' response to his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan, a topic that has been woefully understudied. Accordingly, this work interprets Valerius' Argonauticaas a reaction to two primary stimuli, one poetic — Lucan's deconstructive epic of civil war — and one political — Vespasian's restoration of order following the destructive civil war of 68–69. The approach is thus both formalist and historicist: the book seeks not only to elucidate Valerius' dynamic appropriation of Lucan but also to associate the Argonautica's formal gestures with a specific socio-political context.
Jay Sexton
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281039
- eISBN:
- 9780191712753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281039.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The United States was a debtor nation in the mid-19th century, with half of its national debt held overseas. Lacking the resources to develop the nation and to fund the wars necessary to expand and ...
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The United States was a debtor nation in the mid-19th century, with half of its national debt held overseas. Lacking the resources to develop the nation and to fund the wars necessary to expand and then preserve it, the United States looked across the Atlantic for investment capital. The need to obtain foreign capital greatly influenced American foreign policy, principally relations with Britain. The intersection of finance and diplomacy was particularly evident during the Civil War when both the North and South integrated attempts to procure loans from European banks into their larger international strategies. Furthermore, the financial needs of the United States (and the Confederacy) imparted significant political power to an elite group of London-based financiers who became intimately involved in American foreign relations during this period. This study explores and assesses how the United State's need for capital influenced its foreign relations in the tumultuous years wedged between the two great financial crises of the 19th century, 1837 to 1873. Drawing on the unused archives of London banks and the papers of statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic, this work illuminates our understanding of mid-19th-century American foreign relations by highlighting how financial considerations influenced the formation of foreign policy and functioned as a peace factor in Anglo-American relations. This study also analyses a crucial, but ignored, dimension of the Civil War — the efforts of both the North and the South to attract the support of European financiers. Though foreign contributions to each side failed to match the hopes of Union and Confederate leaders, the financial diplomacy of the Civil War shaped the larger foreign policy strategies of both sides and contributed to both the preservation of British neutrality and the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy.Less
The United States was a debtor nation in the mid-19th century, with half of its national debt held overseas. Lacking the resources to develop the nation and to fund the wars necessary to expand and then preserve it, the United States looked across the Atlantic for investment capital. The need to obtain foreign capital greatly influenced American foreign policy, principally relations with Britain. The intersection of finance and diplomacy was particularly evident during the Civil War when both the North and South integrated attempts to procure loans from European banks into their larger international strategies. Furthermore, the financial needs of the United States (and the Confederacy) imparted significant political power to an elite group of London-based financiers who became intimately involved in American foreign relations during this period. This study explores and assesses how the United State's need for capital influenced its foreign relations in the tumultuous years wedged between the two great financial crises of the 19th century, 1837 to 1873. Drawing on the unused archives of London banks and the papers of statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic, this work illuminates our understanding of mid-19th-century American foreign relations by highlighting how financial considerations influenced the formation of foreign policy and functioned as a peace factor in Anglo-American relations. This study also analyses a crucial, but ignored, dimension of the Civil War — the efforts of both the North and the South to attract the support of European financiers. Though foreign contributions to each side failed to match the hopes of Union and Confederate leaders, the financial diplomacy of the Civil War shaped the larger foreign policy strategies of both sides and contributed to both the preservation of British neutrality and the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy.
William W. Batstone
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195389579
- eISBN:
- 9780199866496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389579.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Sallust's analysis of civil war at Rome with a particular focus on the Bellum Catilinae. It argues that, for Sallust, Romans fight with words as well as weapons, with no end in ...
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This chapter examines Sallust's analysis of civil war at Rome with a particular focus on the Bellum Catilinae. It argues that, for Sallust, Romans fight with words as well as weapons, with no end in sight, and that a quality as quintessentially Roman as virtus was both a cause of civil war and what was destroyed by civil war. The chapter also addresses the problem of defining civil war in the late Republic, and the difficulty of finding closure.Less
This chapter examines Sallust's analysis of civil war at Rome with a particular focus on the Bellum Catilinae. It argues that, for Sallust, Romans fight with words as well as weapons, with no end in sight, and that a quality as quintessentially Roman as virtus was both a cause of civil war and what was destroyed by civil war. The chapter also addresses the problem of defining civil war in the late Republic, and the difficulty of finding closure.
Michael Pasquier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195372335
- eISBN:
- 9780199777273
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372335.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter provides a lens through which to watch missionaries reconsider their relationships with French and Roman authorities as they lived within slave states and gradually came to identify ...
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This chapter provides a lens through which to watch missionaries reconsider their relationships with French and Roman authorities as they lived within slave states and gradually came to identify themselves with local and regional customs in the American South. The responses of French missionary priests to slavery and civil war serve to concentrate the findings of the previous four chapters into a noticeable reorientation in the institutional development of Catholicism in the United States, for it was in their responses that missionaries most evidently opposed the mandates of their superiors in France and Rome. The desire of French missionary priests to change the world according to Catholic social teaching proved grossly insufficient in the way southern and northern bishops responded to the charitable care of newly emancipated African Americans leading up to the First Vatican Council of 1869–70.Less
This chapter provides a lens through which to watch missionaries reconsider their relationships with French and Roman authorities as they lived within slave states and gradually came to identify themselves with local and regional customs in the American South. The responses of French missionary priests to slavery and civil war serve to concentrate the findings of the previous four chapters into a noticeable reorientation in the institutional development of Catholicism in the United States, for it was in their responses that missionaries most evidently opposed the mandates of their superiors in France and Rome. The desire of French missionary priests to change the world according to Catholic social teaching proved grossly insufficient in the way southern and northern bishops responded to the charitable care of newly emancipated African Americans leading up to the First Vatican Council of 1869–70.
Arihiro Fukuda
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206835
- eISBN:
- 9780191677328
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206835.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Political History
The English civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century produced two political thinkers of genius: Thomas Hobbes and James Harrington. They are known today as spokesmen of opposite positions, Hobbes of ...
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The English civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century produced two political thinkers of genius: Thomas Hobbes and James Harrington. They are known today as spokesmen of opposite positions, Hobbes of absolutism, Harrington of republicanism. Yet behind their disagreements, this book argues, there lay a common perspective. For both writers, the primary aim was the restoration of peace and order to a divided land. Both men saw the conventional thinking of the time as unequal to that task. Their greatest works — Hobbes's Leviathan of 1651, Harrington's Oceana of 1656 — proposed the reconstruction of the English polity on novel bases. It was not over the principle of sovereignty that the two men differed. The author of this book shows Harrington to have been, no less than Hobbes, a theorist of absolute sovereignty. But where Hobbes repudiated the mixed governments of classical antiquity, Harrington's study of them convinced him that mixed government, far from being the enemy of absolute sovereignty, was its essential foundation.Less
The English civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century produced two political thinkers of genius: Thomas Hobbes and James Harrington. They are known today as spokesmen of opposite positions, Hobbes of absolutism, Harrington of republicanism. Yet behind their disagreements, this book argues, there lay a common perspective. For both writers, the primary aim was the restoration of peace and order to a divided land. Both men saw the conventional thinking of the time as unequal to that task. Their greatest works — Hobbes's Leviathan of 1651, Harrington's Oceana of 1656 — proposed the reconstruction of the English polity on novel bases. It was not over the principle of sovereignty that the two men differed. The author of this book shows Harrington to have been, no less than Hobbes, a theorist of absolute sovereignty. But where Hobbes repudiated the mixed governments of classical antiquity, Harrington's study of them convinced him that mixed government, far from being the enemy of absolute sovereignty, was its essential foundation.
