Conservative Americanism

Conservative Americanism (Lexington Books) examines the rise of nativist ideology among former Whigs in the Border South during the political turmoil leading up to the Civil War. Historian Jesse George-Nichol challenges the conventional understanding that Southern support for the Know Nothing or American Party was driven primarily by a desire to preserve the Union, arguing instead that Southern nativism and Unionism were closely intertwined through a shared concern over the perceived threat that a growing immigration rate and foreign political ideas posted to slavery. Centering her focus on the political debates surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska crisis, the election of 1860, and the tumult caused by the secession, George-Nichol explores how Southern moderates came to view sectional conflict not merely as a struggle over slavery and the Union, but also as a clash between native-born American values and foreign radicalism. Conservative Americanism brings new insight to the years preceding the Civil War.