Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire

by Amy S. Greenberg

The U.S.-Mexico War (1846-1848) brought two centuries of dramatic territorial expansionism to a close, and apparently fulfilled America's Manifest Destiny. Or did it? Even as politicians schemed to annex new lands in Latin America and the Pacific, other Americans aggressively pursued expansionism independently. In fact, an epidemic of unsanctioned attacks by private American mercenaries (known as filibusters) occurred between 1848 and 1860 throughout the Western Hemisphere. This book documents the potency of Manifest Destiny in the antebellum era, and analyzes imperial lust in the context of the social and economic transformations that were changing the definition of gender in the U.S.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Grad School, Gender, School

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Amy Greenberg is Liberal Arts Research Professor of History and Women's Studies at Penn State. She is a leading scholar of Manifest Destiny and has held fellowships from the Huntington Library, the New York Historical Society, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society. Her previous books include Manifest Manhood, Antebellum American Empire, and Cause for Alarm.

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is first class historical writing. Greenberg focuses on the 1840's to 50s, between the war on Mexico and the Civil war, when the USA had achieved its coast to coast "manifest destiny", but was torn over the next directions for further growth. She explores the lively contention between visions of manhood and national success, between "restrained men" and "militant men" through every kind of public and private writing of the time. She follows the adventures of "filibuster" men, devoted to leading privateer expeditions to push open new frontieres for American civilization in Latin America or the Pacific. As she quotes the New York Herald in 1847: "Like the Sabine virgins, she [Mexico] will soon learn to love her ravisher." And as the Democratic Review boasted in the late 1850s, "in no part of the world nor in any age, are the traits of a conquering and a dominant people to be found in greater perfection than among ourselves". Such views clash with other visions -- of professional family men or activist women -- creating a fine drama that echoes down the decades of American history to the present time.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gender analysis fresh perspective but for the era overlooked the issue of slavery. The author finished the book strangely with incomplete information as almost an after thought incorporating Hawaii, China, Japan, and the Philippines

[Matthew Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greenberg's core thesis, that Manifest Destiny and American imperialism was a product of American manhood and gendered language of conquest, is solidly presented; however, she largely ignores other causes, including class and other economic factors.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love it! Gender influences foreign relations, and foreign relations has a key impact on what it meant to be an American

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greenberg argues that manifest destiny was alive and well after the U.S.-Mexico War ended in 1847. The distinction between continental expansion in the antbellum years and imperliams in the postbellum years is a false one. She sses gender as a way to look at this - martial manhood and restrained manhood.

"This study investigates the meaning of Manifest Destiny for American men and women in the years between the U.S.-Mexico and Civil Wars, based on written accounts from letters and journals to political cartoons and newspapers" (p. 5).

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating look at how gender ideals shaped the way in which America went about "Manifesting their destiny." Lots of crazy details about the period that I had never heard about (mini militias going off to "conquer Mexico" on their own? Why is this not in our history books?) and very well written.

[David K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on what led to the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Who would have thought the beginnings of the gendered rhetoric rife in politics today would have come from between the U.S./Mexico War and the Civil War?

[Wes Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent history of the antebellum period, US expansion, and how gender ideals enforced American imperial tendencies. Well researched, it is ultimately a profound meditation on the consistency of aggressive American expansion, a topic that still bears studying today.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good examination of mid-19th Century ideals of manhood, and how those ideas were physically acted upon by those seeking territorial expansion for the United States.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A monograph of gender and cultural history, Amy Greenberg’s Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire ponders the connections between aggressive expansionism and filibustering after the Mexican-American War and analyzes its origins as a outlet for a “martial manhood” conception of masculinity, based largely within the Democratic Party and competing with the “restrained manhood” of the Whigs for dominance over the American cultural landscape. Whereas restrained manhood appealed for peaceful expansion through American commercial ties and economic-cultural power cultivated through religion, martial manhood sought the territorial expansion of America through violent militaristic expeditions unsanctioned but uncondemned by the American government. Finding its archetypal representatives in William Walker’s invasion of Nicaragua and Narciso Lopez’s invasion of Spanish Cuba, martial manhood acted as unifying cultural-political movement between national sections and economically stratified white men in a similar vein to early racial solidarity against American Indians. Although restrained manhood kept political ascendancy and dominated the immediate postbellum period, martial manhood proved a prototypical example of the violent expansionism of American empire found later in the Spanish-American War and the Philippines.

There are some issues with Greenberg's work, in that she minimizes the issue of slavery to emphasize sectional unity under the banner of martial manhood, and does not address sources from the victims of the filibustering efforts aside from unfounded anxieties of Hawaiian politicians, but the contribution towards an analysis of American cultural masculinity and its political power makes these issues minor.

[androlareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

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