Ambivalent Nation ― How Britain Imagined the American Civil War

Hugh Dubrulle explores how Britons imagined the American Civil War and how these imaginings influenced discussions about British politics, society, race, nationalism, and military affairs. Contributing to and expanding upon previous scholarship that focused on establishing British public opinion toward the American war, Dubrulle presents the forces that shaped that opinion. In doing so, he enriches the context of existing historiography. Ambivalent Nation: How Britain Imagined the American Civil War offers a methodical dissection of habits of thought and stereotypes developed during the antebellum period and how they a were largely the product of the Anglo-American post-colonial relationship. Previous historians have suggested that the United States was indeed post-colonial in the antebellum years, but none has applied this concept to the study of British attitudes toward Americans during the Civil War.

Hugh Dubrulle is a professor in the Department of History at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.