Civil War Settlers
Scandinavians, Citizenship, and American Empire, 1848–1870

The first thorough analysis of Scandinavian Americans, examining citizenship, settler colonialism and whiteness in the Civil War era.

Anders Bo Rasmussen (Author)

9781108845564, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 May 2022

292 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.71 kg

'… a thoughtful interpretation of a period and a people, and it should attract wide readership among historians of citizenship and immigration.' Thomas A. Brown, Scandinavian Studies

Civil War Settlers is the first comprehensive analysis of Scandinavian Americans and their participation in the US Civil War. Based on thousands of sources in multiple languages, that have to date been inaccessible to most US historians, Anders Bo Rasmussen brings the untold story of Scandinavian American immigrants to life by focusing on their lived community experience and positioning it within the larger context of western settler colonialism. Associating American citizenship with liberty and equality, Scandinavian immigrants openly opposed slavery and were among the most enthusiastic foreign-born supporters of the early Republican Party. However, the malleable concept of citizenship was used by immigrants to resist draft service, and support a white man's republic through territorial expansion on American Indian land and into the Caribbean. Consequently, Scandinavian immigrants after emancipation proved to be reactionary Republicans, not abolitionists. This unique approach to the Civil War sheds new light on how whiteness and access to territory formed an integral part of American immigration history.

The Problem and the Method
Part I: 1. 1848
2. Exodus
3. Old and New World Liberty
4. Republican Reign
Part II: 5. For God and Country
6. Colonization and Colonialism
7. Duties of Citizenship
8. A Rich Man's War
9. Echoes of Emancipation
Part III: 10. Lincoln's American Empire
11. The Principle of Equality
12. Shades of Citizenship
13. Dollars and Dominion
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: American Civil War [HBWJ], History of the Americas [HBJK], Regional & national history [HBJ], History [HB], Humanities [H]