Civil Wars and Reconstructions in the Americas - (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) by Evan C Rothera (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In the latter half of the nineteenth century, three violent national conflicts rocked the Americas: the Wars of Unification in Argentina, the War of the Reform and French Intervention in Mexico, and the Civil War in the United States. The recovery efforts that followed reshaped the Western Hemisphere. In Civil Wars and Reconstructions in the Americas, Evan C. Rothera uses both transnational and comparative methodologies to highlight similarities and differences among the wars and reconstructions in the US, Mexico, and Argentina. In doing so, he uncovers a new history that stresses the degree to which cooperation and collaboration, rather than antagonism and discord, characterized the relationships among the three countries. This study serves as a unique assessment of a crucial period in the history of the Americas and speaks to the perpetual battle between visions of international partnership and isolation"--

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award
Winner of the Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable Wabash Literary Prize

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, three violent national conflicts rocked the Americas: the Wars of Unification in Argentina, the War of the Reform and French Intervention in Mexico, and the Civil War in the United States. The recovery efforts that followed reshaped the Western Hemisphere. In Civil Wars and Reconstructions in the Americas, Evan C. Rothera uses both transnational and comparative methodologies to highlight similarities and differences among the wars and reconstructions in the US, Mexico, and Argentina. In doing so, he uncovers a new history that stresses the degree to which cooperation and collaboration, rather than antagonism and discord, characterized the relationships among the three countries. This study serves as a unique assessment of a crucial period in the history of the Americas and speaks to the perpetual battle between visions of international partnership and isolation.

Review Quotes

"Evan C. Rothera has cast the familiar history of the US Civil War into a new framework that encompasses Latin America. He gives readers an exciting, multifaceted view of the tumultuous decades that shook the Americas from Argentina to Mexico and the United States."--Don H. Doyle, author of The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War

"In this landmark study, Rothera makes a powerful case that to understand the US Civil War requires an intimate grasp of a nineteenth-century Western Hemisphere at war with itself. He tells a compelling story of Pan-American conflict and cooperation, as Argentina, Mexico, and the United States all shared in what Abraham Lincoln deemed humankind's 'eternal struggle' between the forces of liberty and despotism."--Andrew F. Lang, author of In the Wake of War: Military Occupation, Emancipation, and Civil War America

"This book is a signal contribution to our understanding of the intertwined politics of the New World during a critical era of global history defined by the clash between the fragile forces of democracy and the counterrevolutionary agents of monarchy and hereditary privilege."--Patrick J. Kelly, associate professor of history, University of Texas at San Antonio

About the Author

Evan C. Rothera is assistant professor of history at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. He is coeditor of The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans.