German-Americans and Civil War Politics: A Reconsideration of the Ethnocultural Thesis

Kamphoefner, Walter D.

doi:10.1353/cwh.1991.0047

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Our analysis of the influence of the Forty-Eighters on antislavery culture and enlistment choices connects with the historical literature on the socio-political origins of the Civil War, including Wiley (1952), Foner (1970), McPherson (1997, Costa and Kahn (2010), Goodheart (2011), andDoyle (2014). The Forty-Eighters are mentioned frequently in this literature, and there are a number of historical studies specifically devoted to them (Zucker 1950, Wittke 1970, Kamphoefner 1991. 7 Our study utilizes the Forty-Eighters' unique circumstance to show more broadly the important role that individual leadership played in the spread of the antislavery movement as well as in the mobilization of volunteers for the war.…”

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Leadership in Social Movements: Evidence from the “Forty-Eighters” in the Civil War

Dippel

Heblich

2021

American Economic Review

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This paper studies the role of leaders in the social movement against slavery that culminated in the US Civil War. Our analysis is organized around a natural experiment: leaders of the failed German revolution of 1848–1849 were expelled to the United States and became antislavery campaigners who helped mobilize Union Army volunteers. Towns where Forty-Eighters settled show two-thirds higher Union Army enlistments. Their influence worked through local newspapers and social clubs. Going beyond enlistment decisions, Forty-Eighters reduced their companies’ desertion rate during the war. In the long run, Forty-Eighter towns were more likely to form a local chapter of the NAACP. (JEL D74, J15, J45, J61, N31, N41)

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confidence: 99%