Fordham University Press Remaking North American Sovereignty: State Transformation in the 1860s (Reconstructing America)

This book explores the tumultuous history of state making in mid-nineteenth- century North America from a continental perspective. Essays by experts on Canadian Confederation, the U.S. Civil War, Mexico's fight against French imperialists, and indigenous Americans shed new light on events traditionally studied as separate national stories. Review Remaking North American Sovereignty is truly a transnational volume... These lively essays will appeal to a general as much as a scholarly audience and many would make excellent additions to graduate seminars.-- "Southwestern Historical Quarterly" This interesting collection of essays will appeal to transnational scholars as well as political and constitutional historians.-- "Choice" Bold, original, and extremely provocative, these essays will help scholars think beyond national borders in ways that center, rather than turn away from, domestic state-building and political formations. By connecting the mid-century sovereignty crises in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and by drawing upon imaginative scholars in each field, the editors have put together a lively collection that is at once a guide to the contemporary scholarship on sovereignty, a call to create an integrated North American history, and a series of reflections about moments in each region's domestic history that look very different when seen from afar. ---Gregory P. Downs, author, The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic, This expertly curated volume uncovers the forgotten connections between the North American crises of the 1860s. Ranging across the continent's contested battlegrounds and borderlands, and foregrounding indigenous actors, as well as elites, this book demonstrates how political and economic changes in Canada, Mexico, and the United States revolved around common questions of sovereignty and state-making. Conceptually sophisticated, yet refreshingly accessible, Remaking North American Sovereignty is required reading for anyone interested in the U.S. Civil War, nineteenth century empire, and the formation of modern nations. ---Jay Sexton, author of A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American History (2018), About the Author Jewel L. Spangler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. She has published on eighteenth-century American religion and the cultural history of the early American republic. Frank Towers is Associate Professor of History at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. He is the author of The Old South’s Modern Worlds: Slavery, Region, and Nation in the Age of Progress (2011). Robert Bonner is Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor in the Dartmouth history department and author of Mastering America: Southern Slaveholders and the Crisis of American Nationhood. Christopher Clark is Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. His books include Social Change in America: From the Revolution through the Civil War. Jane Dinwoodie is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in American History at the University of Cambridge. She is currently writing a book about Indian Removal and the thousands of people who avoided it.