Doyle, Don H. The Cause of all Nations: An International History of the American Civil War. Basic Books, NY. 2015. The years of the Civil War are often characterized merely by the fighting between the Union and Confederacy as a moral conflict over the practice of slavery. The Cause of all Nations entertains a new look on the period. Don Doyle, a historian who specializes in the Civil War includes evidence which brings to light this missing piece: the interaction of foreign nations with the fraying country—The ‘United’ States. Doyle uses his work to prove that understanding the diplomatic interactions of the Atlantic community is essential to a comprehensive study. Thus, arguing that without England, France, and other European nations the Civil War would look much different. The book is beneficial to
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Doyle expands upon this by including various primary and secondary sources. He includes various visual and written primary sources; his use of visual sources is by far the most intriguing. Doyle incorporates flyers urging German and Italian immigrants to join the Union in its fight to keep the country together. Doyle uses the flyer as proof that the North was attempting to keep the United States together, but after Lincoln’s passing of the Emancipation Proclamation the war goals shifted and became a moral fight against the practice of slavery. The effect of the shift challenged the South’s support from foreign allies who had abolished the practice years prior, and had been supportive in so far as the war was being fought on the basis of becoming a new nation. Leaders such as Charles Marx began to see the change in the goals of the war; Marx viewed President Lincoln as a leader who was working to end the labor not only of slaves, but also end the usurpation over the working
Doyle expands upon this by including various primary and secondary sources. He includes various visual and written primary sources; his use of visual sources is by far the most intriguing. Doyle incorporates flyers urging German and Italian immigrants to join the Union in its fight to keep the country together. Doyle uses the flyer as proof that the North was attempting to keep the United States together, but after Lincoln’s passing of the Emancipation Proclamation the war goals shifted and became a moral fight against the practice of slavery. The effect of the shift challenged the South’s support from foreign allies who had abolished the practice years prior, and had been supportive in so far as the war was being fought on the basis of becoming a new nation. Leaders such as Charles Marx began to see the change in the goals of the war; Marx viewed President Lincoln as a leader who was working to end the labor not only of slaves, but also end the usurpation over the working