Ebook: Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898

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.