Leadership and Social Movements: The <em>Forty-Eighters</em> in the Civil War / Christian Dippel, Stephan Heblich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dippel, Christian.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Heblich, Stephan.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24656.

NBER working paper series no. w24656

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

This paper studies the role of leaders in the social movement against slavery that culminated in the U.S. Civil War. Our analysis is organized around a natural experiment: leaders of the failed German revolution of 1848-49 were expelled to the U.S. and became anti-slavery campaigners who helped mobilize Union Army volunteers. Towns where <em>Forty-Eighters</em> settled show two-thirds higher Union Army enlistments. Their influence worked thought local newspapers and social clubs. Going beyond enlistment decisions, <em>Forty-Eighters</em> reduced their companies' desertion rate during the war. In the long run, <em>Forty-Eighter</em> towns were more likely to form a local chapter of the NAACP.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2018.