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In the 19th century, both Italy and the US were young countries pursuing liberal nationalism even as unity was threatened by a recalcitrant southern population. This nuanced analysis of abolitionism and Italian democratic nationalism, Lincoln and Cavour, and the nation's two civil wars provides powerful new insights into their histories.
List of contents
Introduction: Nation-Building in the Age of Lincoln and Cavour: Three Comparative Dimensions PART I: NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN ABOLITIONISM AND ITALIAN DEMOCRATIC NATIONALISM 1. Radicalism and Nationalism: Northern "Liberators" and Southern Laborers in the United States and Italy, 1830-1860 2. Purging Nations with Blood: John Brown, Pisacane, Social Justice, and Guerrilla Warfare PART II: LINCOLN, CAVOUR, AND "PROGRESSIVE NATIONALISM" 3. Economic Progress, Markets, and Railways in Lincoln's and Cavour's Early Careers 4. "Progressive Nationalism," Politics, and National Unifications: Lincoln and Cavour after 1850 PART III: SECESSION, CIVIL WAR, AND NATION-BUILDING IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITALY 5. The Specter of Confederate Secession in Early Post-Unification Italy 6. Inner Civil Wars in the Confederate South and the Italian Mezzogiorno, 1861-1865
About the author
Enrico Dal Lago is Lecturer in American History at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is author of Agrarian Elites: American Slaveholders and Southern Italian Landowners, 1815-1861 (2005), American Slavery, Atlantic Slavery, and Beyond: The U.S. 'Peculiar Institution' in International Perspective (2012), and William Lloyd Garrison and Giuseppe Mazzini: Abolition, Democracy, and Radical Reform (2013).
Summary
In the 19th century, both Italy and the US were young countries pursuing liberal nationalism even as unity was threatened by a recalcitrant southern population. This nuanced analysis of abolitionism and Italian democratic nationalism, Lincoln and Cavour, and the nation's two civil wars provides powerful new insights into their histories.
