German Americans on the Middle Border From Antislavery to Reconciliation, 1830–1877

Zachary Stuart Garrison

“[E]xquisitely crafted history, both in its nuanced reassessment of the nature and results of German antislavery activism before, during, and after the Civil War and its lucid explanation of the many complicated reasons behind the dizzying rise and fall of German social and political influence and status in the region over that period of time.”—Andrew J. Wagenhoffer, Civil War Books and Authors

Before the Civil War, Northern, Southern, and Western political cultures crashed together on the middle border, where the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers meet. German Americans who settled in the region took an antislavery stance, asserting a liberal nationalist philosophy rooted in their revolutionary experience in Europe that emphasized individual rights and freedoms. By contextualizing German Americans in their European past and exploring their ideological formation in failed nationalist revolutions, Zachary Stuart Garrison adds nuance and complexity to their story. Garrison’s unique transnational perspective to the sectional crisis, the Civil War, and the postwar era complicates our understanding of German Americans on the middle border.

Maura

Paper: 978-0-8093-3556-5

E-book: 978-0-8093-3557-2 $24.50, 282 pages, 38 illus.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3755-2

E-book: 978-0-8093-3756-9

$30, 232 pages, 4 illus.

Cloth: 978-0-8093-3395-0

E-book: 978-0-8093-3396-7

$39.50, 368 pages, 32 illus.