The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War

by Iver Bernstein

For five days in July 1863, at the height of the Civil War, New York City was under siege. Angry rioters burned draft offices, closed factories, destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines, and hunted policemen and soldiers. Before long, the rioters turned their murderous wrath against the black community. In the end, at least 105 people were killed, making the draft riots the most violent insurrection in American history.

In this vividly written book, Iver Bernstein tells the compelling story of the New York City draft riots. He details how what began as a demonstration against the first federal draft soon expanded into a sweeping assault against the local institutions and personnel of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party as well as a grotesque race riot. Bernstein identifies participants, dynamics, causes and consequences, and demonstrates that the "winners" and "losers" of the July 1863 crisis were anything but clear, even after five regiments rushed north from Gettysburg restored order. In a tour de force of historical detection, Bernstein shows that to evaluate the significance of the riots we must enter the minds and experiences of a cast of characters--Irish and German immigrant workers, Wall Street businessmen who frantically debated whether to declare martial law, nervous politicians in Washington and at City Hall. Along the way, he offers new perspectives on a wide range of Civil War
society and politics, patterns of race, ethnic and class relations, the rise of organized labor, styles of leadership, philanthropy and reform, strains of individualism, and the rise of machine politics in Boss Tweed's Tammany regime.

An in-depth study of one of the most troubling and least understood crises in American history, The New York City Draft Riots is the first book to reveal the broader political and historical context--the complex of social, cultural and political relations--that made the bloody events of July 1863 possible.

Genres: History, Civil War, 19th Century, American History, New York, American Civil War, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1989

Reviews

[Glenn Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dry scholarly book on both the draft riots in New York City and the economic changes and progress that brought this disgraceful event to be. The Anti-Draft, Anti-War crowds went on a week long riot that targeted police officers, Blacks, middle class Whites and upper class Whites. Many Blacks, Whites, cops and soldiers were killed by the rioters (made up mainly of Irish immigrants) and it took the redirect of Union soldiers after Gettysburg to put down the riots. This book covers many of the leading New Yorkers ranging form the mayor, who wanted to have NY City secede from the US and become a neutral city, to leading businessmen, union organizers and more.

The time period covered is from 1820, with the rise of industry to 1876 with the fall of Tammany Hall. It went into what occurred in each neighborhood during the riot and how some neighborhoods either participated in the riots, did not participate or were invaded with massive torching, looting and killings.



Interesting concept arising from this book as to what makes a traitor to a nation-were the anti-war Democrats traitors or were they celebrating the First Amendment? Was Mayor Fernando Wood a traitor for advocating neutrality? Was Horace Greeley truly a traitor for advocating pardons to the Confederates as the popular view was at the time?

A very well researched book, but quite scholarly with stats, bio's and more related to unions, trade associations and clubs.

[John Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history on NYC Draft Riots. Dense

[Amy Katherine Wolff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief day by day account of the New York City Draft Riots during the Civil War.

[Sean Chick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great scholarship but man this guy knows how to make a riot a total bore.

[The_lucanator · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this as part of a history research project. The first chapter looks into the actual events of the New York Draft Riots, a period where Irish and German immigrants rioted in the city against Republicans and the black community in the biggest case of civil disturbance in American history. The rest of the book offers a good analysis about where the immigrants were in the city's society before, during, and after the war, specifically where they stood in society and their relationships to the major political parties of the time.

The writing here is dull but the information it provides is pretty stellar. I found the differences between the Irish industrial workers, who came from agrarian backgrounds with little education, and the German artisans, who were quite socialist and educated from the Revolutions of 1848, to be an interesting observation. Also surprising was that a lot of the most heinous examples of violence in the Draft Riots weren't even committed by men of drafting age but teenage boys that were part of the disenfranchised community. Bernstein outlines the political machines of New York pretty well, with abolitionist Republicans being firmly nativist and Democrats at least pretending to be the immigrant's ally while just being corrupt and looking to enrich themselves; it helped explain and certainly increased the prevalence of Tammany Hall right after the Civil War. Definitely an informative read for people looking into New York history and the relations between nineteenth-century parties, Irish and German immigrants, and black Americans, but it doesn't come with a terribly exciting voice.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though a chapter and a half or so deal directly with the riots most of the work covers the political situation after them. It should be noted that the riots against the draft quickly morphed into race riots. However the author notes that the mayor's "dispatching of small bands of police and military to the uptown working class ward enraged rather than pacified the crowds." When Governor Seymour arrived he conciliated the white populace and neglected blacks. Bernstein can be sometime confusing as he refers to prior years. He mentions something call the Price Committee which 'contemplated an active government setting limits to the exploitative accumulation of capital' but I could not ascertain whether it occurred before or after the riots. A few paragraphs later he notes the Amalgamated Trades Convention found 'the few were stealing the power from the many' and 'all of the offices of the General Government and those of each State were disposed of to a specific class.'

Among statements applicable to today (2020) and perhaps all time are: "When religion had been made the 'confederate of mongrels' the inevitable result was extirpation of 'differences of opinion by fire and sword.'" and, "The Republican Party, with its roots deep in evangelical Protestantism, was a Jeffersonian nightmare." What eventually shows forth is the police power of the state was (and is) used to protect the monied class.

[Steven Ledell · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writer is obviously a college professor - the book reads like a text book.

I don't think the book is edited very well. The chapter (or sub-chapter) contains a title that the author spends the opening few pages on that topic, then meanders across a variety of subjects till the chapter ends. Not everything included in that chapter is interesting. Some of the notes at the end of the book are more interesting than what are included in the chapter.

Not much of the book actually involves the NY city Draft Riots. I think a better title of the book would have been New York City 1840 - 1880. That's what the author is really writing about.

[Mark O'brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Bernstein spends about 50 pages on the riots themselves, the bulk of the book is given over to analyzing events 10-20 years before the riots and to the decades following the riots. It's not a general interest book, but more of an in-depth analysis of political, economic and social trends in 1800s New York.

[Mark Singer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super-detailed but dull recounting of the New York City Draft Riots of July 1863. The first chapter is a good description of how the riots happened, but the rest of the book goes into tedious detail about the origins of the clashes that led to the riots, and the consequences of the disturbances. I wanted to like this but felt that I had to fight my way through each chapter with a shovel. 🙁