The American Civil War and the British Press

By Alfred Grant

Those writing for the British press of the mid-Victorian era were masters of the English language, given to tirades of grand oratory on matters large and small. They particularly liked to cover the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786406305
• ISBN13: 9780786406302
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Length: 197 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and frightening; good historical analysis

Having researched at least the London Times during this same period I can attest to the conclusions reached by this author in his much wider (and exceedingly valuable) sweep of the British Press at this time. The temptation here is to dismiss his conclusions as 'fantastic'; that ruling class interests in British society at the height of the Victorian era could be so profoundly set against the "Second American Revolution" as historian James M. McPherson describes Lincoln's vision during the American Civil War. In other words, that England's aristocracy actually feared on an underlying influence of 'popular democracy' or 'republicanism'. But the fact remains that they WERE, and Alfred Grant merely lays before the reader the facts as they were written by contemporaries. This was a different world from what we know today, in many ways, and the British Empire was culpably responsible for materially aiding the Confederacy throughout the conflict--a watershed in both American and World history. The simple fact that the Second Reform Act of 1867 was passed by Parliament only AFTER the victory of the Union (and the death of conservative Lord Palmerston) confirms Grant's conclusions. History, strange but true, is on his side--and makes this work a valuable adjunct to any understanding of the dynamics of Anglo-American relations in the mid-Victorian age.