Sir Llewellyn Woodward, in a preface to his short History of England (1947), wrote that writing a short history of a country with much to record ‘is like trying to pack the crown jewels into a hat-box’. Writing an account of a great subject like the origins of the American Civil War, which has inspired some of the most distinguished historical writing of the twentieth century, is likewise akin to trying to cover the Statue of Liberty with a tarpaulin. Consequently, this book is not a comprehensive history of the ante-bellum United States, but a study of the origins of its civil war. I have tried to combine the necessity of providing an accessible introduction to this enormous subject for the beginner with advancing my own views on the nature of the complex political, economic, social and military processes which brought this cataclysm about. This book is, therefore, a synthesis resting heavily on the wealth of recent writing on the subject produced by American and British historians. The American Civil War is a subject which has engaged the attention of many British historians, although United States history occasionally provokes ambivalence. It was extraordinary that during the Thatcher years, for example, the British government invoked a ‘special relationship’ in language of striking sentimentality, yet presided over an unprecedented disintegration of American Studies academic departments. Fortunately, some of this damage has been reversed in recent years. Thomas Carlyle once exclaimed that the United States was a country of 18 million bores. On the contrary, the history of the United States is an exciting and turbulent subject. If I have an excuse for taking so long to produce this book, it is that I have become too absorbed by my subject.
My indebtedness to this veritable scholarly cornucopia is made clear in my footnotes and bibliography. Although my sources have in the main been secondary works and primary printed material, in my concluding chapters I have made use of my own research among manuscript sources for a much more ambitious book on the Civil War. Nonetheless, I have relied very heavily on the writings of my many distinguished predecessors. Although comparisons are indeed odious they should still remain in the province of the historian; so if I am forced to single out one work on this subject which I would carry with me to the proverbial desert island (assuming, of course, that I could cram it into my carpet bag during moments of some anxiety as the ship went down), it would be Allan Nevins’s The Ordeal of the Union (8 vols, 1947–71). Sir Harold Nicolson, when indicating the influence of the works of Sir Charles Webster on the composition of his book, The Congress of Vienna (1946), remarked that ‘It is from this huge quarry that so many of us have gathered our little heap of stones’. Like many historians before me, I have often scurried to Nevins’s volumes, trowel in hand, never without gain.
I am indebted to a number of friends who have either helped me on detailed points, or read and commented on the entire typescript. My debt over the years to Professor Peter J. Parish is enormous, and he has gone to great lengths to straighten out what would otherwise be a tangled skein of ideas. Dr John White commented on Chapter 2, and gave me much useful advice on the vexed issue of race relations. I have relied on his advice for over twenty years and never ceased to profit from it. To Dr Martin Crawford I am especially grateful because he found time, despite many responsibilities as head of department, to read and comment on the entire typescript, greatly to its benefit. I am also indebted, in many unobtrusive ways, to Professor Richard J. Carwardine, Professor Bruce Collins and Dr Robert Cook, who helped pilot my course through treacherous and unpredictable waters. The advice that I miss the most is that of the late Marcus Cunliffe. I have no doubt his comments on my typescript would have been voluminous, delivered in that soft, gentle, but surprisingly firm voice, combined with an engaging charm. American Studies has still to reckon its loss by his premature death; as for myself, I miss his wisdom sorely. The ideas in Chapter 8 were first tried out at the University of Hull, Department of History, Alumni Conference, 2 June 1990. I am deeply grateful to two old friends, John Major, for organizing it, and Keith Simpson, my fellow ‘old boy’, for steadying words of advice and his mischievous jokes, which were sorely needed when my morale flagged. But my greatest debt is to the general editor of the series, Professor Harry Hearder. This book would not have been completed without his friendship, guidance, good sense and inexhaustible patience. It has been a pleasure to work with him.
Visits to the United States have been rendered even more enjoyable by invitations to lecture. Parts of my final chapter were first tried out at a conference on strategy held at the US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. My thanks are due to Professor Michael I. Handel for encouraging my work in this area and for inviting me. My final obligation is to my many friends in the British Army who have sustained my work over the last few years. The Staff College, Camberley, is perhaps the ideal place for study and reflection. The Staff College Library is without doubt the best I have ever used, and I am deeply grateful to its staff for managing my numerous queries with such efficiency and good humour, especially Mrs Pam Bendall, the College Librarian, and Mr Ken Franklyn. I am also exceedingly fortunate in my secretary, Mrs Penny Eldridge, for all her hard work in producing a final manuscript to such a high standard. Only I know the full extent of the privileges that I have enjoyed over recent years. My friend and colleague, Dr Richard Holmes, once observed that I had been working on this book for as long as he had known me. I hope with its publication not only that I have shown that I have put my time to good use, but also that I have answered the question that has been put to me so frequently as to what I do with it; and to my most vociferous interlocutor this book is dedicated.
King’s College, London – Arwenack House, Falmouth – Staff College, Camberley – The George Washington University, Washington DC
Brian Holden Reid