This Vast Southern Empire
Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy
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This Vast Southern Empire
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Narrated by:
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Tom Zingarelli
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By:
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Matthew Karp
About this listen
For proslavery leaders like John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis, the 19th-century world was torn between two hostile forces: a rising movement against bondage and an Atlantic plantation system that was larger and more productive than ever before. In this great struggle, Southern statesmen saw the United States as slavery's most powerful champion. Overcoming traditional qualms about a strong central government, slaveholding leaders harnessed the power of the state to defend slavery abroad. During the antebellum years, they worked energetically to modernize the US military while steering American diplomacy to protect slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the Republic of Texas. As Matthew Karp demonstrates, these leaders were nationalists, not separatists. Their "vast Southern empire" was not an independent South but the entire United States, and only the election of Abraham Lincoln broke their grip on national power. Fortified by years at the helm of US foreign affairs, slave-holding elites formed their own Confederacy - not only as a desperate effort to preserve their property but as a confident bid to shape the future of the Atlantic world.
©2016 Matthew Karp (P)2017 TantorCritic Reviews
What listeners say about This Vast Southern Empire
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-01-2021
Worth a read!
This was an incredibly insightful book about the advent of the American civil war and the usually unread history of American foreign policy prior. It's terribly illuminating of the roles and motivations as to why the United States acted the way it did, with the limitation of historical evidence. However, the author makes note of these limitations and admits to some shortcomings in his analysis. I must admit I was very impressed with the commentary and the historical evidence. The pacing of the book is superb as it covers a period from British abolitionism to the civil war itself. The narration was sublime, a good choice to immerse yourself in America's history in the 19th century. Some might find the historical details a bit tedious and discussing the more intricate and legalistic aspects can be jarring. But the message of the book is clear and it's really a must for people interested in history.
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