The Second American Revolution: The Civil War Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic

Much of the confusion about a central event in United States history begins with the name: the Civil War. In reality, the Civil War was not merely civil — meaning national — and not merely a war, but instead an international conflict of ideas as well as armies. Its implications transformed the U.S. Constitution and reshaped a world order, as political and economic systems grounded in slavery and empire clashed with the democratic process of republican forms of government. And it spilled over national boundaries, tying the United States together with Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Britain, and France in a struggle over the future of slavery and of republics.