Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions [Hardcover]

In the early nineteenth century, the United States turned its idealistic gaze southward,imagining a legacy of revolution and republicanism it hoped would dominatethe American hemisphere. From pulsing port cities to Midwestern farmsand southern plantations, an adolescent nation hailed Latin Americas independencemovements as glorious tropical reprises of 1776. Even as Latin Americans were graduallyending slavery, U.S. observers remained energized by the belief that their foundingideals were triumphing over European tyranny among their sister republics.But as slavery became a violently divisive issue at home, goodwill towardantislavery revolutionaries waned. By the nations fiftieth anniversary, republican efforts abroadhad become a scaffold upon which many in the United States erected an ideology ofwhite U.S. exceptionalism that would haunt the geopolitical landscape for generations.Marshaling groundbreaking research in four languages, Caitlin Fitz defines this hugelysignificant, previously unacknowledged turning point in U.S. history.[Fitz] is a deft guide to this reinterpretation of early American history, a time when earlier rhetoric of inalienable rights and self-evident truths was increasingly challenged by assertions of white superiority and U.S. exceptionalism& Fitz shows that history is not always written by wars, treaties, and administrative actions; often, the people take the lead.This study, based on strong academic foundations and written in captivating and elegant prose, is an impressive achievement that suggests intriguing origins of American exceptionalism.Caitlin Fitzs thrilling investigation is as notable for its readability as for the broad significance of its claims. Fitz introduces us to a United States where South American independence movements were embraced by a surprisingly wide range of U.S. residents, where hemispheric fellowship trumped racism, and both black and white children were named Bolivar. Much like the newspaper editors ql³"