Founded in 1967 - Incorporated in 1972
A century and a half ago the American Civil War began with the bombing of Fort Sumter. Amid all of the attention lavished upon the domestic legacies and consequences of this crucial conflict, the international dimensions of the American Civil War are often ignored. Yet, as the authors in our roundtable point out, there is a rich and vibrant scholarship [...]
It is no longer necessary to begin a discussion of Civil War diplomacy with a comment about its relative neglect in the historiography. Recent years have seen the publication of numerous monographs and articles on various aspects of the topic. The overseas dimensions of the conflict also have been accorded much attention in recent general [...]
In respect to the international dimensions and ramifications of the Civil War, the subject needs to be liberated from the intellectual strait-jacket of American exceptionalism. Instead, it needs to be recognized that this conflict was one of the numerous wars of independence, secession, and national unification which took place from the 1840s to the 1870s. [...]