The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War - Softcover

Bernstein, Iver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195071301 ISBN 13: 9780195071306

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1991

Synopsis

In this vividly written book, Iver Bernstein tells the compelling story of the New York City draft riots. He details how what began as a demonstration against the first federal draft soon expanded into a sweeping assault against the local institutions and personnel of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party as well as a grotesque race riot. He identifies participants, dynamics, causes and consequences, and demonstrates that the "winners" and "losers" of the July 1863 crisis were anything but clear, even after five regiments rushed north from Gettysburg ro restore order. In a tour de force of historical detection, Bernstein shows that to evaluate the significance of the riots we must enter the minds and experiences of a cast of characters--Irish and German immigrant workers, Wall Street businessmen who frantically debated whether to declare martial law, nervous politicians in Washington and at City Hall. Along the way, he offers new perspectives on a wide range of topics: Civil War society and politics, patterns of race, ethnic and class relations, the rise of organized labor, styles of leadership, philanthropy and reform, strains of individualism, and the rise of machine politics in Boss Tweed's Tammany regime.

About this title

About the Author

Iver Bernstein is Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195071301
• ISBN 13: 9780195071306
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384