A Secret Society History of the Civil War.

[Ric]

A Secret Society History of the Civil War

A new link to the book "A Secret Society History of the Civil War" was
recently brought to our attention by Jay Longley and you will see the
content of the article posted below. We have covered this work by
author Mark Lause, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of
history, in past articles (see
http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com/2011/04/secret-society-history-of-civil-war.html
and http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com/2011/08/secret-society-became-model-for-kkk.html)
and still believe you will find it interesting.
CCC

A Secret Society History of the Civil War
Unraveling the influence and power of antebellum secret societies

This unique history of the Civil War considers the impact of
nineteenth-century American secret societies on the path to as well as
the course of the war. Beginning with the European secret societies
that laid the groundwork for Freemasonry in the United States, Mark A.
Lause analyzes how the Old World's traditions influenced various
underground groups and movements in America, particularly George
Lippard's Brotherhood of the Union, an American attempt to replicate
the political secret societies that influenced the European
revolutions of 1848. Lause traces the Brotherhood's various
manifestations, the most conspicuous being the Knights of the Golden
Circle (out of which developed the Ku Klux Klan), and the Confederate
secret groups through which John Wilkes Booth and others attempted to
undermine the Union. Lause profiles the key leaders of these
organizations, with special focus on George Lippard, Hugh Forbes, and
George Washington Lafayette Bickley.

Antebellum secret societies ranged politically from those with
progressive or even revolutionary agendas to those that pursued
conservative or oppressive goals. This book shows how, in the years
leading up to the Civil War, these clandestine organizations
exacerbated existing sectional tensions in the United States. Lause's
research indicates that the pervasive influence of secret societies
may have played a part in key events such as the Freesoil movement,
the beginning of the Republican party, John Brown's raid on Harpers
Ferry, Lincoln's election, and the Southern secession process of
1860-1861.

This exceptional study encompasses both white and African American
secret society involvement, revealing the black fraternal experience
in antebellum America as well as the clandestine operations that
provided assistance to escaped slaves via the Underground Railroad.
Unraveling these pervasive and extensive networks of power and
influence, A Secret Society History of the Civil War demonstrates that
antebellum secret societies played a greater role in affecting Civil
War-era politics than has been previously acknowledged.

"A fascinating and provocative study that illuminates the history of
the Civil War era by probing the relationship between political secret
societies and social radicalism in Europe and antebellum reform and
sectional crisis in the United States. This book will be a tremendous
resource of information for scholars, and it is one of the most
genuinely original works that I have ever read."--Robert E. May,
author of Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum
America

"A challenging look at the reality of Civil War-era secret societies.
This work opens up enormous possibilities for future research,
prompting us to reconsider--or indeed consider for the first time--
people and perspectives that have been, at best, on the periphery of
studies of the Civil War era."--Susan-Mary Grant, author of The War
for a Nation: The American Civil War

"Dispelling the mysticism and self-aggrandizement of fraternal orders
in antebellum America, Mark A. Lause successfully removes the
Panjandrum from the panorama of American secret societies. The result
is a careful examination of the consequence of secret societies and
their place in shaping America’s national identity on the eve of the
Civil War."--Michael A. Halleran, author of The Better Angels of Our
Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War

Mark A. Lause is a professor of history at the University of
Cincinnati and the author of numerous books, including Price's Lost
Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri, Race and Radicalism in the
Union Army, The Antebellum Crisis and America's First Bohemians, and
Young America: Land, Labor, and the Republican Community.

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/29ppy7ss9780252036552.html