Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire (review)

Amy Greenberg's study Manifest Manhood provides an intriguing new interpretation of the meaning of Manifest Destiny and the discourse of American expansionism during the middle part of the nineteenth century. Reversing commonly held historical interpretations, Greenberg convincingly shows that Manifest Destiny continued to hold its appeal to Americans after the Mexican-American War. Proponents of aggressive expansionism viewed the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Central America as the "new frontiers" in need of conquering. Between the conclusion of the Mexican-American War and the outbreak of the Civil War, the practice of filibustering, the invasion of foreign territory by private American mercenaries without official government approval, rose to epidemic proportions.

Based on the investigation of an array of written documents, letters, journals, political cartoons, and newspapers, Greenberg analyzes the meaning of Manifest Destiny for American men and women during the 1840s and 1850s in the context of gender. She contends that radical changes in American society, economy, and culture during the 1830s and 1840s challenged ideals and practices of manhood and womanhood, and that the discussions over territorial expansion in the following decade provided the discourse in and through which these gender roles could be reformulated. During these times of domestic change, according to Greenberg, competing models of manhood appealed to American men and the discussion over expansionism "provided one important stage on which [the] battle [between the competing ideals] was waged" (p. 14). By the time the Mexican-American War concluded, two major ideals of masculinity had evolved: "restrained manhood and martial manhood" (p. 11). The restrained men, guided by morality, reliability, and bravery, staunchly supported female domesticity and opposed aggressive expansionism. Men subscribing to this mode of manhood wanted to fulfill America's Manifest Destiny through peaceful means by spreading allegedly superior American social, cultural, and religious institutions. In contrast, martial men, the precursors of the "manly man" of the turn-of-the-century "primitive masculinity," rejected the moral standards of restrained men and supported forceful expansionism. They were in particular drawn to the expansionist agenda and discourse of the Democratic Party. These martial men were on the forefront of supporting the further forceful expansion of the United States in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific, and they dominated the defense of filibustering expeditions into these regions.

Manifest Manhood eloquently makes the case that aggressive expansionism in the decades prior to the Civil War, exemplified by numerous filibustering expeditions, was partly driven by domestic discourses of the appropriate roles of American men and women in a changing national environment. Manifest Destiny was gendered and a martial vision of manhood began to dominate its implementation. Greenberg's study greatly enhances our understanding of the dynamics behind American expansionism during the nineteenth century and should become a standard feature on the reading lists of university courses dealing with the topics of American imperialism and Manifest Destiny. Furthermore, Greenberg's current work opens the door to a more detailed analysis of how gender and the discourses of American manhood and womanhood prevented a peaceful compromise in the sectional conflict leading up to the Civil War.