The American Civil War in British Culture (Representations and Responses, 1870 to the Present)

Imprinted onto the political discourse, military thought, intellectual life and popular culture, no other foreign conflict left such a deep, lasting mark on British culture as did the American Civil War. Britain's leading politicians, strategists, and thinkers have kept turning to the American conflict from the 1870s to the present, as has the British public more broadly. Drawing on political records, military writings, academic studies, films and interviews, as well as on a wide array of previously unpublished material, this book traces the sources of Britons' appeal to the American conflict and their use of its representations. While people from the United Kingdom often found the American Civil War useful to buttress their views on domestic affairs, the records show that the British used the war and its memory also to advance their interests in the United States, thus making the phenomena examined in this book both local and transatlantic.