Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: May 24, 2021 at 12:39:59 PM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-CivWar]: Cleland on Turner, 'Stonewall Jackson, > Beresford Hope, and the Meaning of the American Civil War in Britain' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Michael J. Turner. Stonewall Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the > Meaning of the American Civil War in Britain. Baton Rouge Louisiana > State University Press, 2020. xii + 334 pp. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-0-8071-7108-0. > > Reviewed by Beau Cleland (University of Calgary) > Published on H-CivWar (May, 2021) > Commissioned by G. David Schieffler > > Historian Michael J. Turner has written an engaging book, _Stonewall > Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the Meaning of the American Civil War in > Britain_, that ably straddles the history and historiography of > Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century and does so > in a way that is cogently argued, intelligently structured, and > comprehensively researched, while presenting a stiff challenge to > reviewers seeking a usable short form of its title. > > Turner's book is the latest entry in the small but somewhat crowded > field of studies on British-American relations during the Civil War > era, with which the author is firmly in conversation. One might be > forgiven for thinking there is little left to say that has not > already been said by Mary Ellison, Duncan Andrew Campbell, Richard > Blackett, Peter O'Connor, Hugh Dubrulle, or a host of other entrants > in the field, but Turner threads that needle in an original fashion > by tying the study of pro-Confederate sympathy in Britain to the > creation of memory and monuments, and by following these themes well > beyond the final battles in 1865. This is at once the book's strength > and its chief difficulty, as the two threads, personified in this > study by Alexander James Beresford Hope and Thomas Jonathan > "Stonewall" Jackson (and his corpse, and later his statue), sometimes > resist Turner's efforts to braid them together. Turner's chief > question is why so many Britons sympathized with the South during the > Civil War, which was and is important because, as he puts it, "the > American war was not just America's war" (p. 3). > > The book opens with an introduction and a single chapter that serves > chiefly as a summary of British-American relations in the era. A > graduate student could hardly hope to have a better summary of the > literature to this date. The remainder of the work is structured into > two sections, the first with six chapters on Hope, the second with > four on Jackson, followed by a conclusion. The six chapters centered > on Hope are organized thematically, and they systematically address > his arguments in favor of the Confederate cause. The four chapters on > Jackson address his Civil War military career and initial public > reception in Britain, followed by the news of his death in 1863 and > the persistence of his reputation postmortem. The final two chapters > center on the enduring fascination with Jackson in Britain and the > movement to fund and construct a monument to him in Richmond. The > conclusion touches on the lasting role of monuments in shaping Civil > War memory in both Richmond and Britain. It feels slightly tone-deaf > and dated given the drastic movement around Confederate monuments in > Richmond and elsewhere in the summer and fall of 2020, but the author > can be forgiven for not predicting the future. I suspect some readers > will not be as lenient on Turner for how white supremacy and the > suppression of civil rights for Blacks inherent in the Confederate > statues in Richmond gets waved away as "racial tension" or > "political, economic, and social difficulties" (p. 258). > > Hope's name will be familiar to scholars of Civil War diplomacy but > perhaps less so to others. He was, in some ways, the stereotype of > the pro-Confederate Briton: conservative, rich (one publication > described him as "the wealthiest commoner in England"); deeply > skeptical of democracy and republican governance; and a relentless > critic of domestic reform advocates like Richard Cobden and John > Bright (p. 261). Although he was a member of Parliament at times in > his life, he did not hold a seat during the war years. Hope was > perhaps the most prominent of the vocal Confederate supporters in > Britain, with the possible exception of Liverpool shipping magnate > William Schaw Lindsay. He promoted the Confederate cause in speeches, > pamphlets, letters, and the pages of the _Saturday Review_, a > prominent London weekly that he controlled. > > Hope's arguments in favor of the Confederacy would do justice to the > most erudite Lost Cause enthusiast today (should such a thing exist). > In a blizzard of speeches and writing, he simultaneously denied that > slavery could be a cause of the war and defended it as an > enlightening institution that civilized and brought (preferably > Anglican) Christianity to an otherwise benighted race. White > Southerners were practically English, and somehow heirs to both the > Cavalier and Puritan (in the Cromwellian sense) traditions of the > Anglo-Saxon "race," while their Northern opponents were the mongrels > of Europe. Hope, who had never visited the United States, swallowed > Southern justifications for secession, slavery, and war and > regurgitated them to his British audience like the world's most > attentive penguin feeding its chick. Only the most noxious arguments > extolling slavery in perpetuity or the reopening of the Atlantic > slave trade were set aside, and these were replaced with wishful > thinking about gradual emancipation and the happy condition of most > enslaved people. Hope publicly advocated for the Confederate cause to > the bitter end, and he deeply regretted its loss, which he > predictably viewed as a valiant and heroic effort defeated by vulgar > strength of numbers. > > In the section on Jackson, Turner's unifying thread becomes clearer: > an important source of British support for the Confederacy was a > malleable admiration for Confederate valor rather than a dedication > to principles. British admiration of the supposed heroism of the > Confederate cause found its apotheosis in Jackson, who was obscure > enough to serve as something of a blank canvas for British observers > to project upon. For many, Jackson was the heir to the military > prowess of both Oliver Cromwell and Prince Rupert (a notable Royalist > commander during the English Civil War), as well as Henry Havelock, a > British commander during the Indian Rebellion in 1857 noted for his > piety who died, like Jackson, at the height of his fame. The Cromwell > and Rupert associations required some metaphorical contortions by > Jackson's supporters, who determined that "the greatest champion of > the Cavalier nation turned out to be a Puritan. Affection for Jackson > pushed forward the merging of the Cavalier and Roundhead tropes" (p. > 172). > > Following his death, Jackson's fame and admiration in Britain > initially grew rather than faded, as Turner demonstrates in chapter > 8. Jackson was celebrated in biographies, portraits, stories, songs, > public lectures, poems, and trinkets. "As a soldier, a southern > leader, a Christian, a virtuous and courageous exemplar, he had a > relevance to large sections of the British public that no other > non-British figure of the era could match" (p. 199). His hold on > popular imagination slackened somewhat over the years, but admiration > remained strong even into the twentieth century, something Turner > attributes not least to Jackson's association with religious piety > alongside his military reputation. > > The tale of Hope and Jackson comes together in the statue erected in > Jackson's honor by "English gentlemen" (as the inscription reads) in > Richmond in 1875. Hope led the fundraising drive to pay for the > statue, which began not long after Jackson's death in 1863 and was > completed quickly by individual subscriptions. The statue, delayed by > a variety of factors, was dedicated at a lavish ceremony in Richmond > in October 1875, attended by many of the surviving leaders and > generals of the Confederacy. Celebrations of Jackson continued for > decades after the statue's completion on both sides of the Atlantic, > and it is difficult to disagree with Turner's assertion that the > "South had lost the war, but Jackson had died victorious" (p. 252). > Turner contests the argument that the statue was purposely delayed > until the return of white supremacist "Redeemer" government in > Virginia. He suggests rather that the timing of its presentation > depended more on the sculptor's health and schedule and on political > conditions in Britain--in other words, the Jackson statue was also a > way for Hope to "shore up the established order" in Britain against > "the unwelcome reforms of recent years" (p. 255). > > Turner's purpose in _Stonewall __Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the > Meaning of the American Civil War in Britain _was to understand the > reasons for widespread British sympathy with the Confederacy. In this > he may have succeeded, but as a reader I came away with a deep > understanding of why Hope supported the rebellion and with less > clarity as to how that translated to other Britons less > self-emulsified in white Southern mythmaking. In assessing the appeal > of Jackson to British observers, it feels as though Turner missed an > opportunity to examine how he fit into Victorian standards of > masculinity--the endless contemporary praise of his bravery, piety, > and "celerity" of action practically begs for such analysis. The > exploration of Jackson's reputation in Britain might also have been > balanced by a more explicit examination of that mythos, as a way to > evaluate what his admirers wanted to believe against a more nuanced > understanding of his abilities. Jackson was neither a perfect > commander (as his performance in the Seven Days Battles showed) nor a > saint. > > I found Hope, by the end of the book, to be a less sympathetic figure > than perhaps Turner intended. From a North American perspective, it > is difficult to separate Hope's failed antidemocratic goals in > Britain from their more successful Jim Crow analogues in the United > States, exquisitely juxtaposed in the Redeemer celebrations > surrounding the unveiling of the Jackson statue in 1875. In either > case, the intention was to promote a specific vision of order and > social hierarchy at the expense of democracy and political rights for > the traditionally disenfranchised. The valorization of Jackson played > directly into these schemes, whatever the intentions of the > monument's British funders. Ultimately, Turner concludes that the > power of Hope's pro-Southern vision faded after his 1887 death in > favor of a conciliatory interpretation of the war that was > "conditioned by the rise to global power of the United States and the > extent to which the government and people of Britain valued U.S. > friendship" (p. 260). The parallel with Civil War memory in the > United States is unmistakable. > > While the subject matter may be a bit narrow for a general audience, > Turner's prose makes it eminently understandable, and lay readers or > undergraduate students should be able to follow along. Some of > Turner's phrasing and word choices may cause the Civil War historian > to raise an eyebrow. For example, he uses the Confederate appellation > of "Sharpsburg" rather than Antietam for that battle, and he often > uses "South" and "Southern" as synonyms for the Confederacy, but > these do not detract markedly from the narrative. This book will be > most useful to scholars of British-American relations, as well as > those interested in the transnational nature of memory and > memorialization during and after the Civil War. > > Citation: Beau Cleland. Review of Turner, Michael J., _Stonewall > Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the Meaning of the American Civil War in > Britain_. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. May, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55975 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8727): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8727 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/83057191/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
