Reviews for The seizure of the Southern commissioners

The average rating for The seizure of the Southern commissioners based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-06-18 00:00:00 William Morrison Written by an Australian historian, this volume does a fine job synthesizing many different analyses and perspectives on Civil War diplomacy. Crook’s main focus is the interaction between the time’s great powers (Britain, France, and Russia) and their leaders’ views on the American war. Great Britain is usually assumed to have played the key role here; Crook agrees but emphasizes how the possibility of closer ties between America and Russia influenced the policies of Britain and France. Crook writes that the international situation at the time largely benefited the Union, due to the “unprincipled egotism” of European diplomacy, shifting alliances in Europe, and technological advances, and puts all of this into its international context. Crook concludes that Europe’s neutrality and uncertainty ultimately led to a kind of American “economic and cultural disengagement” from Europe, and he writes that the ultimate restraint of the powers during the war was “too clearly the product of contingency, cynical self-regard and moral hesitations to impress as a piece of generous and lofty statesmanship.” America was saved, as Horace Greeley put it, by “the unprincipled egotism that is the soul of European diplomacy.” Crook’s style seems a little long-winded, however, and his analysis is often better than his narrative, which seems too dense and heavy at times. At one point Crook writes of the “Federal defeat at Chattanooga.” And here and there the writing becomes a little strange: “The veto on arming, equipping etc., was designed to prevent armed vessels waging war immediately they had cleared port.” A detailed and judicious narrative history.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-04-07 00:00:00 Martin Bonsen Very interesting and readable. Interesting and difficult period of Arkansas history.