Why read The Cause of All Nations?

Book cover of The Cause of All Nations

Book description

When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863, he had broader aims than simply rallying a war-weary nation. Lincoln realized that the Civil War had taken on a wider significance,that all of Europe and Latin America was watching to see whether the United States, a beleaguered model of democracy,…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Cause of All Nations as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Robert E. Bonner

Author

As soon as I encountered Don Doyle’s elegant formulation of the Civil War’s “public diplomacy,” I knew it would move future accounts of the 1860s in exciting new directions. That seemingly simple term, offered as a key concept for the book as a whole, drew into focus how advocates of North and South shaped the overseas responses to Americans’ military conflagration.

Its fast-paced series of chapters provided me a newfound appreciation for the relatively understudied responses of the French, Italian, and German publics.

With strikingly clear prose, the book helped me understand how a transfixing North American war spurred a…

From Robert's list on The best American Civil War books that cross the globe.