Exceptionalism in crisis : faction, anarchy, and Mexico in the US imagination during the Civil War era / Alys D. Beverton.
| Author/creator | Beverton, Alys D. author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2025] |
| Copyright Date | ©2025 |
| Description | xi, 294 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Civil War America Civil War America (Series) ^A325557 |
| Contents | The continental Union cause, 1861-1865 -- Imagining a Franco-Confederate empire, 1861-1865 -- Reconstructing the model republic, 1865-1867 -- Mexicanization and the end of Reconstruction, 1867-1881 -- Reconciliation above and across the Rio Grande, 1877-1883. |
| Abstract | "Before 1861, US Americans could confidently claim to belong to the New World's 'exceptional' republic, unlike other self-governing nations in the Western Hemisphere such as Mexico, which struggled with political violence and unrest. Americans used such comparisons to show themselves and the world that democracy in the United States was working as designed. The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 exploded this illusion by showing that the United States was in fact not immune to domestic political instability. Joining a growing community of historians who study the war in a global context, Alys D. Beverton examines Mexico's place in the US imagination during the Civil War and postbellum period. Beverton reveals how pro- and antiwar Confederates and Unionists alike used Mexico's long history of political strife to alternately justify and oppose the Civil War and, after 1865, various policies aimed at reuniting the states. All used Mexico as a cautionary tale of how easily a nation could slip into anarchy in the tumultuous nineteenth century, even the so-called exceptional United States"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2024045012 |
| ISBN | 9781469685205 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1469685205 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781469685212 paperback |
| ISBN | 1469685213 paperback |
| ISBN | electronic publication |
| ISBN | electronic book |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | E468.9 .B49 2025 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |