Echoes of the American Civil War Abroad

Through a constructivist approach, this book views the era of the American Civil War as a transnational phenomenon, emphasizing its role in shaping national identities and historical memory worldwide. Extending identity narratives across time, contributors from Brazil, Canada, France, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States analyze a wide range of primary sources, including diplomatic correspondence, periodicals, memoirs, intellectual writings, fiction, political cartoons, and murals in order to untangle the international impact of the U.S. Civil War. The countries selected for analysis vary typologically, yet each provides particularly rich material for reconstructing national identity discourses-within a transatlantic framework, as explored in the first two parts of the volume, and within the broader context of the American continents, as addressed in the third part. Russia is treated in a separate section as a distinctive case-at once European, "the Other Europe," and non-European-not only due to the parallels in the domestic and international developments of the Russian Empire and the United States, but also because of the enduring impact of the American Civil War on bilateral relations and mutual perceptions. Taken together, the volume's three sections intersect and reinforce one another, demonstrating how both the Union and the Confederacy were invoked as symbolic Others to shape national self-understandings, grounded in evolving configurations of interests, ideologies, and values.

Ivan Kurilla is Visiting Professor of History at The Ohio State University, USA. Victoria I. Zhuravleva is Professor of History and Chair of the American Studies Department at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.

List of Illustrations Introduction Ivan Kurilla (The Ohio State University, USA) and Victoria Zhuravleva (Russian State University for the Humanities, RU) Part I. Europe and the American Civil War 1. The American Civil War and the Reawakening of European Democracy Don H. Doyle (University of South Carolina, USA) 2. 'A Bridge of Light that Spanned the Atlantic': Great Britain, Race, and the Emotional Legacy of America's Civil War Susan-Mary Grant (University of Newcastle, UK) 3. The American Civil War as Seen by French Liberals (1861-1865) Stève Sainlaude (Sorbonne University, FR) Part II. Russia and the American Civil War 4. Changing Interpretations of the "Fleet story" in Changing Realities of US-Russia Relations Victoria I. Zhuravleva (Russian State University for the Humanities, RU) 5. The Distant War, the Near Debate: Russian Identity Discourses and the US Civil War Ivan Kurilla (The Ohio State University, USA) 6. 'The Wind from the South': The American Civil War in Russian Fiction Lioudmila Fedorova (Georgetown University, USA) Part III. Americas and the US Civil War 7. Mexican Responses to the Civil War in the United States Brian R. Hamnett (University of Essex, UK) 8. Mexico and the American Civil War: A Long-Term Perspective. Impact, Effects, Images and the Shadows of History Erika Pani and Paolo Riguzzi (El Colegio de México, MEX) 9. A Dangerous Influence: Repercussions of American Emancipation on Brazilian Statesmen Vitor Izecksohn (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, BR) 10. A Mirror and a Warning: Canadian Understandings of the American Civil War Frank Towers (University of Calgary, CA) Bibliography Index About the Contributors