Paul Quigley

Damn Yankees!: Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South by George C. Rable (review)

of world events impacted his thoughts on slavery and emancipation, his stance on immigration, and his belief in republicanism. This achievement is significant. In the wake of new global and Atlantic world studies that place the United States within a larger context, historians are just beginning to develop a more cosmopolitan portrait of the sixteenth president of the United States. As Kevin Peraino has recently noted in Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power (2013), foreign affairs remains one of most understudied aspects of Lincoln’s presidency. While Lincoln scholars have continued to produce an astounding array of excellent works, the interplay between Lincoln and the rest of the world has remained a topic on the periphery— acknowledged by Lincoln scholars but considered less important to the formation of Lincoln’s policies than the national context within which he is most frequently placed. The strength of Stevenson’s work resides in its consistent depiction of Lincoln as a nineteenth-century American citizen and statesman whose awareness and understanding of the international context of U.S. events persistently impacted decisions he made before and during his presidency. As Stevenson rightly states: “Subtracting world events from reconstruction of Lincoln’s mental world leaves our understanding of him, both his thought and actions, incomplete and diminished” (5). Through Lincoln in the Atlantic World a new image of Lincoln emerges, one that remains recognizable and built upon previous scholarship yet also incorporates the many influences at home and abroad that led him to frequently consider and reconsider the global impact of his policies and decisions as president of the United States. Sarah Bischoff Paulus

Refighting the Civil War, yet again: Virginia's Confederate History Month mêlée

Last spring Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell marched onto the treacherous battleground of Civil War memory. On 2 April 2010, Good Friday, McDonnell announced on his website that April would be ‘‘Confederate History Month’’ in the state of Virginia. Emphasizing the ongoing significance of Confederate history, the proclamation encouraged Virginians to take time during the month ‘‘to reflect upon our Commonwealth’s shared history’’ in order ‘‘to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.’’ The proclamation defined ‘‘the people of Virginia’’ exclusively as Confederates, leaving out the many Virginians who opposed the Confederacy including almost half a million Virginians who were enslaved and around 375,000 who rejected secession and formed the new, unionist state of West Virginia. Even more controversially, McDonnell’s celebratory presentation of the Confederacy overlooked the fundamental cause of the Civil War, slavery, and failed to mention that there were negative aspects of Confederate history that might be worth remembering, too. The result, predictably, was a public outcry. The ensuing ruckus confirmed the endurance of longstanding disputes over Confederate symbols, disputes that threaten the success of the upcoming Civil War sesquicentennial. The proclamation’s quiet release at the beginning of the Easter weekend meant that it took a few days to be widely noticed, but by the middle of the following week the controversy was well under way. Democratic and African American political leaders in Virginia, along with interest groups such as the NAACP, roundly condemned McDonnell’s omission of slavery. On National Public Radio, Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell wondered why anyone would want to celebrate traitors to the United States. On CNN, the African American analyst Roland Martin berated McDonnell’s ‘‘idiotic mistake,’’ referred to Confederate soldiers as ‘‘domestic terrorists,’’ and passionately insisted that slavery ought to be acknowledged as the cause of the Civil War. An especially prominent critic was former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder, an African American and a Democrat who had indirectly supported McDonnell’s election by withholding support from the Democratic candidate.