Customer Reviews

Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire

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This is first class historical writing. Greenberg focuses on the 1840's to 50s, between the war on Mexico and the Civil war, when the nation had achieved its coast to coast "manifest destiny", but was torn over the next directions for growth. She explores the lively contention between visions of manhood and national success, between "restrained men" and "militant men" through every kind of public and private writing of the time. She follows the adventures of "filibuster" men, devoted to leading privateer expeditions to push open new frontieres for American civilization in Latin America or the Pacific. As she quotes the New York Herald in 1847, "Like the Sabine virgins, she [Mexico] will soon learn to love her ravisher." And the Democratic Review boasted in the late 1850s, "in no part of the world nor in any age, are the traits of a conquering and a dominant people to be found in greater perfection than among ourselves". Such views clash with other visions -- of professional family men or activist women -- creating a fine drama that echoes down the decades of American history to the present time.