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  • Confederate Political Economy: Creating and Managing a Southern Corporatist Nation by Michael Brem Bonner
  • Michael S. Frawley
Confederate Political Economy: Creating and Managing a Southern Corporatist Nation. By Michael Brem Bonner. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2016. X, 260 pp. $48.00. ISBN 978-0-8071-6212-5.

Over the past ten years, as economics has cycled back to being important in the eyes of many historians, researchers have spent a great deal of time studying the economy of the Confederacy, and [End Page 242] Michael Brem Bonner's recent work, Confederate Political Economy: Creating and Managing a Southern Corporatist Nation, is a logical extension of that work. Bonner describes the tight links between the government and the economic life of the Confederacy, showing an attempt to create a slave-based corporatist society in which all parts of the economy were tied together to work in the interests of the national government and thus, in theory, the nation. As Bonner explains, "With a centralizing political culture, [the Confederate political leadership] implemented an expedient corporatist state to mobilize the southern population and develop an industrial base sufficient to wage a modern war" (16-7). While, in the end, this bid was unsuccessful, Bonner argues quite well that the Confederate model was the first in a chain of "modern conservative counterrevolutionary movements to battle the rise of liberalism and unfettered industrial capitalism" (17), and was a precursor to the corporatist states of the 1920s, Germany and Italy. Bonner is careful to state that this does not mean that the Confederacy was fascist, or proto-fascist, but he finds that the political economy of the Confederate South developed similarly to that of Germany and Italy in the 1920s.

Bonner begins his book with a review of how the Confederate government functioned. Because of the problems democracies face in fighting a war, a great deal of work was done in secret sessions by Congress. Moreover, there was not a functioning Supreme Court to act as a check on the other branches of government. This created a situation where the central government had a great deal of power, and Confederate leaders willingly used this power in their effort to establish independence. Much of the focus of the central government was on getting businesses to keep the war effort moving forward. That task grew more difficult as the war progressed, as "the constant problem faced by Confederate political culture was how to successfully mobilize the southern populace and develop an industrial base sufficient to wage a modern war" (61). As the war expanded, the government grew, and this increased central power recognized the need to find a way to keep the materials needed to fight flowing to the front. [End Page 243]

The first way the Confederacy tried to develop an industrial base was to turn to the private sector. The government did not take over firms, but it did work with them to get the war materials that it needed. Because of this, Alabama became very important to the Confederacy. Bonner uses the Shelby Iron Company as an example of the public/ private partnership that developed during the war. The government entered into contracts with Shelby that were very beneficial to the foundry. Business leaders understood their industries better than government officials did; thus, the government allowed these leaders to dictate terms. As the war continued, many citizens denounced these businessmen as profiteers, and the relationship between the company and the government became strained. Shelby's board of directors and the government agent responsible for working with the company accused each other of breach of contract. But, the Shelby Iron Company was not just working for the public good, it was also trying to plan for the future. And, because of its lack of options, the government was forced to work with the company on whatever terms it offered. This scenario played out across the Confederacy. With a flush of patriotism, the government and businesses worked together for the common good, to the profit of both. But, as the war dragged on longer than anyone anticipated, the stress on both the government and businesses grew. While the government had one goal, independence...

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