Matthew Pinsker | Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 242 words from this article are provided below; about 422 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Matthew Pinsker | Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Abraham Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom: The Union and Slavery in the Diplomacy of the Civil War. By Howard Jones. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. xiv, 236 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-8032-2582-2.)

In his latest contribution to the history of Civil War diplomacy, Howard Jones attempts to overcome one of the pitfalls of the field by exploring with more care than is customary the relationship between political ideology and foreign statecraft. Abraham Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom is an ambitious monograph that attempts to connect Lincoln's embrace of Emancipation with the contingencies of wartime diplomacy. 1

The book covers the entire war but focuses heavily on the fall of 1862 when the battle of Antietam and the announcement of impending Emancipation created an unexpected crisis across the Atlantic Ocean. Fearing a prolonged conflict and the possibility of a race war, the British cabinet secretly considered endorsing a plan for European mediation and possible recognition of the Confederate States of America. According to Jones, this potential calamity for the Union was avoided chiefly through the reluctance of Lord Palmerston, the aging British prime minister, to undertake any policy that might damage his nation's self-interest or upset his fragile political coalition. Jones also reports on persistent French efforts to meddle in the conflict, but the various schemes of Napoleon III and his grandiose plans for a New World empire occupy a much lesser portion of the study. . . .

There are about 422 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.