American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850–1873

In his spirited narrative, Taylor shows how the destinies of the three North American powers—Canada, Mexico, and the United States—became forever intertwined. In the nineteenth century, the doctrines of aristocratic hierarchy, republican liberalism, and indigenous communalism battled for hegemony throughout North America. Not surprisingly, Taylor favors Lincolnian liberalism over Southern slavery and prefers the republican secularism of Mexican President Benito Juárez over the imperial ambitions in Mexico of French Emperor Napoleon III. Yet he also faults liberalism for its encroachments on the autonomy of indigenous peoples. Guided by modern sensibilities, Taylor highlights patriarchal hierarchies, gender discrimination, and liberalism’s failures to fully address social inequalities. Taylor enriches his story with sketches of the colorful characters of the era, notably adventurers such as William Walker, who sought unsuccessfully to expand the U.S. domain deeper into Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who had opposed the 1846 U.S.-Mexican War, sympathized with his fellow liberal Juárez in the Mexican leader’s struggle to preserve his country’s autonomy from French encroachment. In the north, the confederation of Canada in 1867 checked U.S. expansionist impulses.