European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy with Ann L. Tucker
Greetings all! I am very happy to welcome Dr. Ann L. Tucker to The Rogue Historian. Ann is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Georgia. As a historian, her areas of expertise include the US South, Civil War, and nationalism and transnational history.
Today we’ll be discussing her latest publication, Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalist Movements and the Creation of the Confederacy, published by the University of Virginia Press (June 2020). In this book, she argues that white southerners in the Civil War Era used their analysis of nineteenth century European nationalist movements to shape their idea of what a nation could and should be, to begin to conceive of the South as different than the North on issues of nationhood and to develop the idea of the South as a potential nation, and to defend and legitimize secession and the Confederacy.
Her in-progress second project will extend her analysis into the Reconstruction era to examine how former Confederates’ international perspective on nationhood helped them remake their own sense of nationhood in the post-Civil War era. The first portion of this research was published as “To ‘Heal the Wounded Spirit’: Former Confederates’ International Perspective on Reconstruction and Reconciliation,” in Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives, ed. Paul Quigley and James Hawdon (Routledge, 2018).
It was great speaking with Ann about a very important and growing field in historical inquiry. We discuss:
What we mean when we talk about nationalism, liberalism, and conservatism in a 19th-century context
Confederate secession and “nationhood” in a global context
White southerners, perceived oppression, liberalism, and republicanism
Confederate Conservatism and purifying nationalism through racial hierarchies
The filibuster and how Confederates reconcile this movement with a rejection of oppression and tyranny
Giuseppe Garibaldi - and how this Italian nationalist soldier/hero factors into the story
The Confederacy and international recognition
Did the Confederates actually create a nation? And if so…does this suggest legitimacy?
Did Confederate leaders think of themselves as the “true inheritors” of the founding generation?
We discuss so much more and I promise, the conversation is fascinating. Have a listen…
Be sure to follow Ann on Twitter and check out her website. Then…get the BOOK, read it, and we can keep the conversation going! AND…don’t forget to subscribe to The Rogue Historian Podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite app so you never ever ever ever miss a show. That would be dumb.
With compliments,
Keith