The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War

[Don1946]

Roger Norton kindly invited me to bring you news of my new book, The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War, coming out with Basic Books, officially in 2015 but now available for ordering on Amazon ... just in time for Christmas!
http://www.amazon.com/Cause-All-Nations-...465029671/

I am delighted to add that Kirkus Reviews, a leading trade publication journal, designated my book one (of 20) "Best Books in History" for 2014.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-revie...l-nations/

Students of Lincoln will find new insights on foreign policy and his special relationship with William Seward, also on Lincoln's important role in articulating the Union cause as the cause of all nations, and a poignant description of the worldwide outrage that grief that met new of his assassination.

The book also follows the CSA government, diplomats, and special agents as they tried to get their message before the world and it gives a new interpretation of the Kenner mission, the last ditch effort to win recognition by promising to give up slavery.

The book focuses not so much on the formal diplomacy between government as the public diplomacy battle to win public sympathy abroad, and while Britain plays a featured role, there is a lot in here on France, Italy, Spain, and on Mexico and Latin America.

I wrote this book for people just like you all. It is based on years of archival research, all carefully cited, but I the story of the key people, ideas, strategies, and I left all the debates among historians out of it.

Follow the book on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/causeofallnations

Roger, thanks for being so generous. I truly appreciate this opportunity to toot my horn.

[L Verge]

(12-12-2014 07:00 PM)Don1946 Wrote:  Roger Norton kindly invited me to bring you news of my new book, The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War, coming out with Basic Books, officially in 2015 but now available for ordering on Amazon ... just in time for Christmas!
http://www.amazon.com/Cause-All-Nations-...465029671/

I am delighted to add that Kirkus Reviews, a leading trade publication journal, designated my book one (of 20) "Best Books in History" for 2014.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-revie...l-nations/

Students of Lincoln will find new insights on foreign policy and his special relationship with William Seward, also on Lincoln's important role in articulating the Union cause as the cause of all nations, and a poignant description of the worldwide outrage that grief that met new of his assassination.

The book also follows the CSA government, diplomats, and special agents as they tried to get their message before the world and it gives a new interpretation of the Kenner mission, the last ditch effort to win recognition by promising to give up slavery.

The book focuses not so much on the formal diplomacy between government as the public diplomacy battle to win public sympathy abroad, and while Britain plays a featured role, there is a lot in here on France, Italy, Spain, and on Mexico and Latin America.

I wrote this book for people just like you all. It is based on years of archival research, all carefully cited, but I the story of the key people, ideas, strategies, and I left all the debates among historians out of it.

Follow the book on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/causeofallnations

Roger, thanks for being so generous. I truly appreciate this opportunity to toot my horn.

Congratulations and best wishes for very good sales!

I enjoyed arguing with you over Gen. Butler and was reminded of that today. Members of the Surratt Society get a monthly newsletter with good history articles supplied mainly by other members (with some very impressive credentials).

Throughout these Sesquicentennial years, I have been doing a month-by-month description of the Civil War Day by Day inspired by the Longs' book. Today, I condensed blurbs from January 1865 that contained comments about Butler and the final demand for his dismissal. They were quite critical of the Beast, and I almost excerpted them and posted them on this forum -- but I decided to let sleeping dogs lie...

A question: About 3-4 years ago, I had a Dr. David Perry (I believe that was his name) contact me to read certain parts of his manuscript that pertained to the assassination. The bulk of his book, however, was questioning the diplomatic expertise of the Lincoln/Seward team. His contention was that, in the first years, they floundered as diplomats.

I have not heard from Dr. Perry since and have no idea if his book was published. Is the name familiar to you? Also, what are your thoughts on Seward, especially as a skilled diplomat? I won't fuss and fume this time because I know nothing about Seward or his qualifications.

[brtmchl]

Congratulations. I am so happy for you and look forward to your release.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(12-12-2014 10:52 PM)brtmchl Wrote:  Congratulations. I am so happy for you and look forward to your release.

I absolutely second this!! May I ask - will it be released in paperback, too (at any time soon)?

[Don1946]

William Seward was probably as controversial as Butler in his way. There was pressure on Lincoln to dump him and he was constantly being harassed by Congress. Politics is a contact sport in a democracy and in a time of war, with so much at stake, there were a lot of accusations and criticisms, some plausible, some not. Seward was shrewd and tough-minded, and very smart on foreign policy.

Seward, and especially Lincoln, were learning on the job, like all leaders in a democracy, but I think they got it right eventually, and managed to fashion an appeal to the European public that effectively stymied the will of government leaders who wanted to bring the war to an end on terms of Southern independence. The appeal of the Emancipation Proclamation to antislavery sentiment was important, but my book makes the case for an even broader appeal to the republicanism vs. aristocracy and monarchy.

Seward was one of our country's best secretaries of state, in the end. He combined bluster and threats of war with a less well-known but quite effective program of public diplomacy, the first of its kind, that appealed to the European public. He was very stubborn on emancipation; he thought it would backfire and lead to European intervention. He was right; it almost did, then in early January 1863 liberal Europe rallied in support of Lincoln and the Union which they saw fighting "Liberty's War" for them as well as for the "Great Republic" of America.

I don't know of any work by David Perry and don't find anything by that name on Lincoln in Worldcat. There is much to criticize on the leadership of both sides, but in an unprecedented crisis such as this, one expects some missteps along the way. The question is, did they learn, grow, succeed? That is the way I approached it.

--Don

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(12-13-2014 04:37 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(12-12-2014 10:52 PM)brtmchl Wrote:  Congratulations. I am so happy for you and look forward to your release.

I absolutely second this!! May I ask - will it be released in paperback, too (at any time soon)?

Thanks Eva, the usual marketing strategy with a trade press like Basic is to sell the hardbacks at a low price (only $21.77 and the kindle only $16 + on Amazon) and maybe put it in paper, mostly for academic sales, sometime later. I'm not sure the pb price will be much lower than the hb now, so buy early and buy often!

To be honest, I'm not in this for the money, but I want Basic Books to feel good about publishing me, and above all, I want lots of readers to know that "our" Civil War meant a great deal to the rest of the world. Though I had not planned it this way, I also think the book will serve as a timely reminder of how much the world admired the Great Republic as a working model of government and society that proved democracy could work, that it could reform itself, and survive a catastrophic civil war and even an assassination.

[Gene C]

Don, sounds great, the more you tell us about it, the better it sounds.
And congratulations! It isn't easy to get published.

[L Verge]

Thanks for the Seward lesson. Your answer is more like what I had as an impression of Seward from my little bit of schooling on him. Having visited his home in Auburn and seen the masses of things that he was given on the continent and in diplomatic circles, it is hard to think that the Europeans had anything but respect for Mr. Seward.

[Don1946]

(12-13-2014 06:30 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Thanks for the Seward lesson. Your answer is more like what I had as an impression of Seward from my little bit of schooling on him. Having visited his home in Auburn and seen the masses of things that he was given on the continent and in diplomatic circles, it is hard to think that the Europeans had anything but respect for Mr. Seward.

Palmerston and the British governing class distrusted and feared Seward, and the French thought he drank too much and was a little crazy.
But both governments feared war with the U.S. and feared popular opposition to such a war from those who began to see America fighting against slavery and the aristocracy, or so they saw it. I would love to visit Sewards house.
Thanks for the kind words all.
Amazon says they guarantee delivery by Dec 19

[HerbS]

I have always felt that Seward had his own agenda! I did a bit of research for Christine on his letters to Akien in the library at the UofRochester.

[BettyO]

Here is a terrific, scholarly link regarding Seward and Lincoln - it's a fascinating viewpoint of how many similar traits both men had. Seward was the consummate politician -

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860...w=fulltext

[Linda Anderson]

(12-14-2014 11:24 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Here is a terrific, scholarly link regarding Seward and Lincoln - it's a fascinating viewpoint of how many similar traits both men had. Seward was the consummate politician -

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860...w=fulltext

Thanks, Betty. It's a fascinating article with a different take on Seward. I'm looking forward to reading The Cause of All Nations, too.

[BettyO]

Seward liked cigars, liquor and cats! A little man with a husky voice (probably from smoking) he appeared as if he never combed his graying red hair and one person described him with his beaked nose, large ears and "sandy colored hair" as if he were an active, garrulous old bird! He cared nothing for fashion and wore old, out of date tail coats -

While I know very little about politics, here is another very interesting article about Seward and his policies -

https://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=1017

[HerbS]

BetyO,Thanks for the Terrific article on Seward! I did find a letter that he wrote to Akien in the UofR library stacks.He essentially told Akien to be careful of the Mormons and Confederates.I found this for Christine,so that she could fully research her article on Akien[Surratt-Currior].