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Secret Society History of the Civil War

Mark A. Lause
€27.50
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1848
1860-1861
A01=Mark A. Lause
African American
America
antebellum
Author_Mark A. Lause
Brotherhood of the Union
Category=JBSX
Category=NHK
Category=NHWF
Category=NHWR3
Civil War
Confederate
crisis
election
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Europe
European Revolutions
freemasonry
George Lippard
groups
Harpers Ferry
history
identity
John Brown
John Wilkes Booth
Knights of the Golden Circle
Ku Klux Klan
labor
Lincoln
movements
ninteenth-century
Old World
politics
power
radicalism
raid
reform
relationship
secret
secret society
societies
Southern secession process
states
studies
traditions
underground
Union
United States
war

Product details

  • ISBN 9780252080500
  • Weight: 367g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 04 Sep 2014
  • Publisher: University of Illinois Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
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Description
This unique history of the Civil War considers the impact of nineteenth-century American secret societies on the path to as well as the course of the war. Beginning with the European secret societies that laid the groundwork for Freemasonry in the United States, Mark A. Lause analyzes how the Old World's traditions influenced various underground groups and movements in America, particularly George Lippard's Brotherhood of the Union, an American attempt to replicate the political secret societies that influenced the European revolutions of 1848. Lause traces the Brotherhood's various manifestations, the most conspicuous being the Knights of the Golden Circle (out of which developed the Ku Klux Klan), and the Confederate secret groups through which John Wilkes Booth and others attempted to undermine the Union. Lause profiles the key leaders of these organizations, with special focus on George Lippard, Hugh Forbes, and George Washington Lafayette Bickley.

Antebellum secret societies ranged politically from those with progressive or even revolutionary agendas to those that pursued conservative or oppressive goals. This book shows how, in the years leading up to the Civil War, these clandestine organizations exacerbated existing sectional tensions in the United States. Lause's research indicates that the pervasive influence of secret societies may have played a part in key events such as the Freesoil movement, the beginning of the Republican party, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Lincoln's election, and the Southern secession process of 1860-1861.

This exceptional study encompasses both white and African American secret society involvement, revealing the black fraternal experience in antebellum America as well as the clandestine operations that provided assistance to escaped slaves via the Underground Railroad. Unraveling these pervasive and extensive networks of power and influence, A Secret Society History of the Civil War demonstrates that antebellum secret societies played a greater role in affecting Civil War-era politics than has been previously acknowledged.

About Mark A. Lause
Mark A. Lause is a professor of American history at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of A Secret Society History of the Civil War and Race and Radicalism in the Union Army.

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