German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era

German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era

Description

This study of Civil War–era politics explores how German immigrants influenced the rise and fall of white commitment to African-American rights. Intertwining developments in Europe and North America, Alison Clark Efford describes how the presence of naturalized citizens affected the status of former slaves and identifies 1870 as a crucial turning point. That year, the Franco-Prussian War prompted German immigrants to reevaluate the liberal nationalism underpinning African-American suffrage. Throughout the period, the newcomers’ approach to race, ethnicity, gender, and political economy shaped American citizenship law.

  • Recreates the German-language debate in the United States based on a range of under-utilized sources
  • Provides a transnational history of the Civil War era, intertwining developments in North America and Europe
  • Integrates ethnic construction and naturalization into an interpretation of race and citizenship

ISBN

9781107031937

Publication Date

5-2013

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

City

Cambridge

Disciplines

History | United States History

Comments

Introduction: naturalized citizens, transnational perspectives, and the arc of reconstruction

1. The German language of American citizenship

2. The 'freedom-loving German', 1854–60

3. Black suffrage as a German cause in Missouri, 1865

4. Principal rising, 1865–9

5. Wendepunkt: the Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1

6. The Liberal Republican transition, 1870–2

7. Class, culture, and the decline of reconstruction, 1870–6

Epilogue: the Great Strike of 1877

Appendix: voting tables

Bibliography.

German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era

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