Dec. 17, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'Bye Bye, Miss American Empire'
Lively Account of Past and Present Attempts to Fashion a Kindlier, Gentler 'Little America' from Gigantic Nation
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
One Hundred and fifty years ago this Monday, Dec. 20, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Its northern neighbor, North Carolina, was the last Southern state to leave the Union, on May 20, 1861. Like western Virginia -- later the state of West Virginia -- the North Carolina mountains were Unionist territory. True fact: despite strong Unionist sympathies, the Tarheel State contributed more soldiers to the Confederacy than any other state.
In his quirky, entertaining and very readable "Bye Bye, Miss American Empire: Neighborhood Patriots, Backcountry Rebels, and Their Underdog Crusades to Redraw America's Political Map" (Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT, 336 pages, $17.95) self-described little American anti-Imperialist author Bill Kauffman traces the historical roots of the secessionist spirit and introduces us to the often radical, sometimes quixotic, and highly charged movements that want to decentralize and re-localize power.
During the eight long years of the George W. Bush administration, he says, frustrated liberals talked secession back to within hailing distance of the margins of national debate, a place it had not occupied since 1861. Now, secessionist voices on the left and right and everywhere in between are amplifying. Kauffman: “The noise is the sweet hum of revolution, of subjects learning how to be citizens, of people shaking off . . . their Wall Street and Pentagon overlords and taking charge of their lives once more.” It’s been almost a century and a half since a critical mass of Americans believed that secession was an American birthright. But breakaway movements large and small are rising up across the nation. From Vermont to Alaska to Puerto Rico to Hawaii activists driven by all manner of motives want to form new states — and even new nations.
Starting with the Second Vermont Republic (SVR) movement, a serious effort to go back to 1777 when the Green Mountain Republic was independent of the other colonies (a situation that lasted until 1791, when it joined the United States), Kauffman discusses in considerable detail efforts to create a separate nation of Alaska; revive the Kingdom of Hawaii; detach the 8.5 million residents from New York, which would become the new state of Iroquois (Kauffman is a proud resident of the tiny village of Elba, NY, in upstate Genesee County, east of Buffalo); split off the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of my native Michigan (state motto: "Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice". "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.") creating a new state of Yooper (that's what the residents of the U.P. call themselves); split California into two or more states; restore the Republic of Texas to its pre-1845 independent position, etc., including the attempts to divide up cities like New York and Los Angeles, where, respectively, Staten Island and the San Fernando Valley would go their own way.
Going back to colonial days and in the decades following, 17 of the present states were independent, starting with the 13 original colonies. Vermont was independent for 14 years, longer than Texas (just under 10 years) and California, only a few weeks. Contrary to the beliefs of some, when Texas was admitted to the Union on Dec. 29, 1845, the resolution didn't grant the Texas Republic the explicit right to secede from the Union. This is a right argued by some to be implicitly held by all states, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White in 1869 that no state has the right to unilaterally secede. Kauffman devotes a considerable amount of space to discuss this case. The admission resolution did include the right of the Lone Star Republic to spin off four additional states from Texas' territory, with the consent of the State of Texas.
Speaking of creating states from other states, Kauffman says that, under a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, the creation of West Virginia in 1863 from the Old Dominion, without the latter's permission, is specifically banned by Article IV, Section 3 in the document, thus making West Virginia technically illegal. The section requires permission from the legislatures of both states. Kauffman notes that this was hardly the only illegal action of President Abraham Lincoln during the war.
Perhaps the most controversial part of the book is Kauffman's account of the League of the South, which advocates a new Confederacy composed of most of the former C.S.A. (but not Texas). I can tell from his discussion that Kauffman has issues with the League of the South and its inclusion of racists and refusal to specifically disavow them. The flag proposed for Southern States of America would feature the familiar dancing pigs found at Southern barbecue joints (these pig signs may exist in Texas, but I've never seen them in my travels around my new home state, the once -- and maybe -- future Lone Star Republic, where restaurants are more likely to feature mesquite barbecued brisket or chicken, along with slaw, beans and ice tea).
Kauffman argues that the sheer size of the American Empire makes it do imperial things, like invading other countries willy nilly. Thanks to its overreaching, the American Empire is dying, says Kauffman, describing how those rising up to topple that empire are a surprising mix of conservatives, liberals, regionalists, and independents who — from movement to movement — may share few political beliefs but who have one thing in common: a sense that our nation has grown too large, and too powerfully centralized, to stay true to its founding principles.
Much of the book reminded me of one I read and reviewed in March, "Lost States," which covered many of the same issues Kauffman addresses. Here's a link to my March 29, 2010 review of "Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It": http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100329-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html.
About the Author
Bill Kauffman is the author of nine books, including Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette, which won the 2003 national "Sense of Place" award from Writers & Books, and Look Homeward, America, which the American Library Association named one of the best books of 2006. He writes frequently for The Wall Street Journal and the American Conservative and lives in his native Genesee County, New York, with his family. He has called himself the love child of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Henry David Thoreau!
Bill Kauffman blogs at The Front Porch Forum.
Publisher's website: www.chelseagreen.com
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BOOK REVIEW: 'Bye Bye, Miss American Empire'
Lively Account of Past and Present Attempts to Fashion a Kindlier, Gentler 'Little America' from Gigantic Nation
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
One Hundred and fifty years ago this Monday, Dec. 20, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Its northern neighbor, North Carolina, was the last Southern state to leave the Union, on May 20, 1861. Like western Virginia -- later the state of West Virginia -- the North Carolina mountains were Unionist territory. True fact: despite strong Unionist sympathies, the Tarheel State contributed more soldiers to the Confederacy than any other state.
In his quirky, entertaining and very readable "Bye Bye, Miss American Empire: Neighborhood Patriots, Backcountry Rebels, and Their Underdog Crusades to Redraw America's Political Map" (Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT, 336 pages, $17.95) self-described little American anti-Imperialist author Bill Kauffman traces the historical roots of the secessionist spirit and introduces us to the often radical, sometimes quixotic, and highly charged movements that want to decentralize and re-localize power.
During the eight long years of the George W. Bush administration, he says, frustrated liberals talked secession back to within hailing distance of the margins of national debate, a place it had not occupied since 1861. Now, secessionist voices on the left and right and everywhere in between are amplifying. Kauffman: “The noise is the sweet hum of revolution, of subjects learning how to be citizens, of people shaking off . . . their Wall Street and Pentagon overlords and taking charge of their lives once more.” It’s been almost a century and a half since a critical mass of Americans believed that secession was an American birthright. But breakaway movements large and small are rising up across the nation. From Vermont to Alaska to Puerto Rico to Hawaii activists driven by all manner of motives want to form new states — and even new nations.
Starting with the Second Vermont Republic (SVR) movement, a serious effort to go back to 1777 when the Green Mountain Republic was independent of the other colonies (a situation that lasted until 1791, when it joined the United States), Kauffman discusses in considerable detail efforts to create a separate nation of Alaska; revive the Kingdom of Hawaii; detach the 8.5 million residents from New York, which would become the new state of Iroquois (Kauffman is a proud resident of the tiny village of Elba, NY, in upstate Genesee County, east of Buffalo); split off the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of my native Michigan (state motto: "Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice". "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.") creating a new state of Yooper (that's what the residents of the U.P. call themselves); split California into two or more states; restore the Republic of Texas to its pre-1845 independent position, etc., including the attempts to divide up cities like New York and Los Angeles, where, respectively, Staten Island and the San Fernando Valley would go their own way.
Going back to colonial days and in the decades following, 17 of the present states were independent, starting with the 13 original colonies. Vermont was independent for 14 years, longer than Texas (just under 10 years) and California, only a few weeks. Contrary to the beliefs of some, when Texas was admitted to the Union on Dec. 29, 1845, the resolution didn't grant the Texas Republic the explicit right to secede from the Union. This is a right argued by some to be implicitly held by all states, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White in 1869 that no state has the right to unilaterally secede. Kauffman devotes a considerable amount of space to discuss this case. The admission resolution did include the right of the Lone Star Republic to spin off four additional states from Texas' territory, with the consent of the State of Texas.
Speaking of creating states from other states, Kauffman says that, under a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, the creation of West Virginia in 1863 from the Old Dominion, without the latter's permission, is specifically banned by Article IV, Section 3 in the document, thus making West Virginia technically illegal. The section requires permission from the legislatures of both states. Kauffman notes that this was hardly the only illegal action of President Abraham Lincoln during the war.
Perhaps the most controversial part of the book is Kauffman's account of the League of the South, which advocates a new Confederacy composed of most of the former C.S.A. (but not Texas). I can tell from his discussion that Kauffman has issues with the League of the South and its inclusion of racists and refusal to specifically disavow them. The flag proposed for Southern States of America would feature the familiar dancing pigs found at Southern barbecue joints (these pig signs may exist in Texas, but I've never seen them in my travels around my new home state, the once -- and maybe -- future Lone Star Republic, where restaurants are more likely to feature mesquite barbecued brisket or chicken, along with slaw, beans and ice tea).
Kauffman argues that the sheer size of the American Empire makes it do imperial things, like invading other countries willy nilly. Thanks to its overreaching, the American Empire is dying, says Kauffman, describing how those rising up to topple that empire are a surprising mix of conservatives, liberals, regionalists, and independents who — from movement to movement — may share few political beliefs but who have one thing in common: a sense that our nation has grown too large, and too powerfully centralized, to stay true to its founding principles.
Much of the book reminded me of one I read and reviewed in March, "Lost States," which covered many of the same issues Kauffman addresses. Here's a link to my March 29, 2010 review of "Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It": http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100329-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html.
About the Author
Bill Kauffman is the author of nine books, including Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette, which won the 2003 national "Sense of Place" award from Writers & Books, and Look Homeward, America, which the American Library Association named one of the best books of 2006. He writes frequently for The Wall Street Journal and the American Conservative and lives in his native Genesee County, New York, with his family. He has called himself the love child of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Henry David Thoreau!
Bill Kauffman blogs at The Front Porch Forum.
Publisher's website: www.chelseagreen.com
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