The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 259
559 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
wrote Mason to leave London; and he joined John Slidell in Paris to pursue an
ill-advised policy of seeking independent action by Napoleon III, Emperor of
France. Napoleon had embarked upon his Mexican adventure in 1862 and
needed a friendly neighbor across the Rio Grande. This initiative ended in fail-
ure as did the 1865 Kenner mission to Europe which conveyed an offer of eman-
cipation in exchange for recognition and intervention.
Hubbard's perceptive book, based on both the existing secondary literature
and original sources, should replace Kng Cotton Diplomacy as the standard work
on Confederate diplomacy. Although he fully explores the diplomatic opportu-
nities that were "either misunderstood, overlooked, or mishandled" (p. x), he
properly acknowledges that "Ultimately, the dream of Southerners to create an
independent nation was lost on the battlefield, at places like Shiloh, Gettysburg,
and Chattanooga" (p. 177). As Slidell, a realist, wrote to Benjamin from Paris on
August 24, 1862, "you will find by my official correspondence that we are still
hard and fast aground here. Nothing will float us off but a strong and continued
current of important successes in the field" (p. 112).
University of Texas at Austin NORMAN D. BROWN
Arkansas and the New South, 1874-1929. By Carl H. Moneyhon. (Fayetteville: Uni-
versity of Arkansas Press, 1997. Pp. 168. Illustrations, foreword, introduc-
tion, bibliographic essay, index. ISBN 1-55728-490-3. $14.00, paper).
With publication of Arkansas and the New South, 1874-1929, the University of
Arkansas Press inaugurates its Histories of Arkansas series. The series will provide
a comprehensive history of the state, something that has heretofore been nonex-
istent. If succeeding volumes equal the caliber of Carl H. Moneyhon's work, the
multivolume compilation will prove a success.
Not dramatically dissimilar to other Southerners, post-Reconstruction
Arkansans sought at once both to "redeem" the "traditional" ante bellum caste sys-
tem and to bring the state into the gilded age of industrial production. With rail-
road construction came development of an already expanding timber industry,
establishment of agricultural centers, and a link to national markets. Coal min-
ing in the nineteenth century and the discovery of petroleum early in the twenti-
eth further strengthened economic connections between Arkansans and the rest
of the nation and helped to fuel growth of disparate regions of the state. But the
extent to which Arkansas would participate in the notion of a "New South"
would be impeded by two primary factors. The state's continuing dependence
upon agriculture as an economic mainstay, once invigorated by connection to
national markets, became threatened by those and international production, es-
pecially by foreign cotton production. The social and economic strain created by
conflict between a successfully reinstated caste system and the demands and op-
portunities imposed by growing industrialization and urbanization likewise hin-
dered growth.
Professor Moneyhon skillfully delineates Arkansans and the obstacles they
faced in their attempts to bring their state to prosperity. An examination of farm1998
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999, periodical, 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101219/m1/302/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.