Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 (Conflicting Worlds) [Hardcover]

Edward J. Blum (Author), T. Michael Parrish (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Conflicting Worlds | Publication Date: June 2005

During Reconstruction, former abolitionists in the North had a golden opportunity to pursue true racial justice and permanent reform in America. But why, after the sacrifice made by thousands of Union soldiers to arrive at this juncture, did the moment slip away, leaving many whites throughout the country more racist than before? Edward J. Blum takes a fresh look at this question, going beyond issues of economics, gender, and historical memory to focus on the vital role that religion played in reunifying northern and southern whites into a racially segregated society. He tells the fascinating story of how northern Protestantism, once the catalyst for racial egalitarianism, promoted and sanctified notions of a mythic "white republic."

The Civil War, notes Blum, had torn apart all sense of what it meant to be an "American," leaving northern and southern whites feeling isolated from each other. In this political climate, the pleas of reformers were stifled by religious leaders who evoked a unifying image of the country, one that conflated whiteness, godliness, and nationalism. This image of the white republic helped mend the North-South rift while lending moral purpose to the government’s imperialist ambitions. By 1900 the United States felt divinely sanctioned in subjugating peoples of color at home and abroad.

Reforging the White Republic winds and twists through a wide array of venues and media to document how figures from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Frederick Douglass either supported or tried to resist the retreat from Reconstruction. Magazines, personal diaries, sermons, hymns, travelogues, Supreme Court opinions, and political caricatures illustrate religious ideologies at play in virtually every aspect of the larger culture. A blend of history and social science, the book offers a surprising perspective on the forces of religion as well as nationalism and imperialism at a critical point in American history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edward J. Blum is the coeditor of Vale of Tears: New Essays in Religion and Reconstruction. He is a fellow with the DuBois Center for the Advanced Study of Religion and Race at the University of Notre Dame.

Winner of the 2004 C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize of the Southern Historical Association.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press; Illustrated. edition (June 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807130524
• ISBN-13: 978-0807130520
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,675,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manipulating Religion, October 12, 2006

By 

Lilia Arfinengo (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 (Conflicting Worlds) (Hardcover)

Edward J. Blum. Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898. Louisiana State University Press, 2005. 356pp.

Reforging the White Republic is an innovative, ground breaking historical account of how, right after Civil War (from Reconstruction through the War of 1898), nineteenth-century northern white Protestants abandoned the fight for racial equality and, by manipulating religious beliefs and revival movements, justified white unification between North and South at the expense of Afro Americans civil rights.

Immediately after the Civil War, white reunion was not inevitable. The momentum for American racial transformation was never stronger than the time right after the end of the Civil War, when radical republicans were denouncing all forms of racial distinctions and working with religious beliefs to transform white's racial perceptions once formed to support slavery. Missionaries were sent to South to help educate the freed people and with that interracial contact, the negative perceptions created by racist theories of racial differences were being transformed into mutual admiration and respect. It looked like finally the black population, would be included into full American citizenship. "Taken from the perspective of white and black Americans in the 1860, the reconstructions-education crusade was a dramatic moment of interracial fraternity that had the power to alter Southern and American society." (52)
By seizing the exact moment in which religion begins to be used in favor of white supremacy, Blum points out that a "counter morality" was created by a small group of white pastors, guided by Henry W. Beecher, a northern preacher and former abolitionist, which argued against punishing the South and excluding them from full participation in the Union. (89) To Beecher, his Christian duty was to immediate forgive the South and his parameter for nationalism and inclusion was based on skin color rather then allegiance to the Union.

With that perception, a great number of Methodists and Presbyterians leaders created a strong movement in which north and southern congregations would bond with the determination of forgetting the reason of why the nation suffered the Civil War for the sake of white unity. Blum provides a detailed and poignant description of how religion was used by mid 1870s when a great revival commanded by Dwight Moody "encouraged Americans to set aside social and political issues in order to focus on spiritual conversions and personal piety." (123) Those revivals had the power of diminishing denominational antagonisms and became "a genuinely national phenomenon that glorified a solidly white American republic." (131)

Reforging the White Republic exposes religion as the most powerful factor on changing white northern abolitionists' minds and behavior towards the Afro American people. The extensive research used on the making of this book helps the reader understand how much inclined towards religion nineteenth century Americans were and how religion was used in every instance of their lives. From personal letters and diaries, to magazines and newspapers, Blum made sure that every material would be fully examined and used to provide a comprehensive and poignant description of the inner life of the American society. Moreover, Blum's work is an innovative approach and the first to give religion the right and fundamental importance on influencing white Americans' exclusion of Afro Americans rights and in the reforging of the nation once shattered by the Civil War. Ultimately, Blum's work is a must to the study and comprehension of racism and discrimination in our society, a phenomenon that unfortunately still haunts us to this day.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A different view of Civil War Reconstruction, May 17, 2008

By 

C. Haver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) (Paperback)

In Reforging the White Republic Blum takes a different angle at exploring the post Civil War/Reconstruction era. He writes on the different roles religion played in attempting or not attempting to reconstruct the United States. The book flows well and avoids verbose and complicated language that usually turns readers off. It is startling to learn of the different stances religions and religious leaders took, in terms of race relations between whites and African Americans, after the war. Between hypocrisy and outright dedication and heroics, the challenges of reuniting a nation are examined in Blum's work. This is an asset in the college classroom.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for American History Buffs, May 17, 2008

By 

Nicholas Ruiz "Niko" (Red Sox Nation) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) (Paperback)

Drop any preconceptions you may have had about the social climate following the Civil War in America. Historian Blum does an excellent job of not simply giving you a page by page analysis of why Reconstruction faltered in America; he also explains how religion, nationalism and white idenetity played huge roles(negative and positive)in the successes and failures of Reconstruction. Blum has decided to keep his analysis more centered on how the cultures of the white and black Americans of the North and South continued to meet and change themselves in order to keep pace with times. This book will allow you to see the struggle of maintaining belief systems rather than that of an Army. The battle fought in the psyches of Americans following the Civil War was just as important as those played out on the battle fields.