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THE GERMANIC AND THE ROMANIC SPIRIT: FRIEDRICH KAPP'S CASTING OF THE AMERICAN STRUGGLE BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH
Author(s) -
Geissler Christopher M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/glal.12066
Subject(s) - german , ideology , history , philosophy , humanities , ancient history , art history , classics , law , political science , archaeology , politics
In his Geschichte der Sklaverei in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika (1860), Friedrich Kapp drew on a German concept of a clash between Germanic and Romanic civilisations to explain the American conflict between North and South. Kapp responded to an analogous ideology propagated by Southerners that divided the US into an Anglo‐Saxon North and Norman South. In doing so, Kapp demonstrated a unique synthesis of German and American thought that set his response to the South apart from that of Anglo‐American anti‐slavery thinkers. More importantly, by applying the clash of civilisations in a transatlantic way, Kapp universalised and strengthened the concept for its eventual later application again in Germany.