Civil War and Agrarian Unrest

Enrico Dal Lago is Professor of History at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He holds a Ph.D. in History from University College London. He is the author of several books, including Agrarian Elites: American Slaveholders and Southern Italian Landowners, 1815-1861 (2005), and William Lloyd Garrison and Giuseppe Mazzini: Abolition, Democracy, and Radical Reform (2013).

• Introduction: civil war, nation-building, and agrarian unrest in the Confederate South and Southern Italy: a comparative perspective; Part I. Inner Civil Wars and National Crises, 1860–1863: 1. Preemptive counterrevolutions: the rebellions of the elites; 2. The difficult birth of two nations; 3. Inner civil wars in East Tennessee and Northern Terra di Lavoro I, 1860–1861; 4. Inner civil wars in East Tennessee and Northern Terra di Lavoro II, 1861–1863; Part II. Civil Wars and Social Revolutions, 1862–1865: 5. Revolutions: the revolts of the lower strata; 6. Civil wars and agrarian questions; 7. Social revolutions in the lower Mississippi Valley and upper Basilicata I, 1862–1863; 8. Social revolutions in the lower Mississippi Valley and upper Basilicata II, 1863–1865.

'Enrico Dal Lago recounts in compelling detail and with analytic precision the simultaneous civil wars that unfolded in the United States and Italy in 1861–65. This is comparative history at its best, as parallel histories intersect, shedding new light on the freedom struggles of American slaves and Italian peasants, as well as on the nation-building projects of elites in both countries. There is no historian writing today who approaches the past like Enrico Dal Lago.' Andrew Zimmerman, George Washington University, Washington, DC