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Made in Britain Nation and Emigration in Nineteenth-Century America
Stephen
Tuffnell
California University Press, 2020 Hardcover. xiii+302 p. ISBN 978-0520344709. $49.95/£41
Reviewed
by Marie Ruiz Université d’Amiens
Stephen
Tuffnell’s Made in Britain : Nation and Emigration in
Nineteenth-Century America is a thorough, original and engaging account of
the part played by American expats in the creation of transatlantic
diplomacy in post-independence 19th-century Britain. The book - peppered with specific case studies, useful
statistics and factual analyses, as well as compelling anecdotes - is both an enjoyable and instructive read. Starting with analyses of the fear of American
invasion in early 20th-century Britain, anxieties prompted by the massive arrival of expats from the United States, the book then goes on to examining
the roots of Anglo-American public and diplomatic relations in the 19th century
as well as the influence of the Industrial Revolution on
Anglo-American relationships. It ends with the ensuing reversal of domination pattern implemented by the growing impact of American soft power, as well as cultural and economic imperialism in Britain. Unlike
traditional accounts of migration involving the United States, in Made in
Britain the United States in not the receiving country, but Tuffnell
focuses on the integration of the American diaspora in Britain and its impact
on diplomatic and cultural relationships between Britain and the United States.
According to him, American emigrants had a “disproportionate influence over the
nature of the United States’ transnational linkages and foreign relation” [19].
Expats partook in the construction of the nation as an independent entity from Britain. From this vantage point, defining American nationalism ambivalently
combined contested Anglo-Saxonist roots and pride in the American
Revolution - a celebration of democracy against tyranny. The fivechapters that make up the book offer a multifactorial analysis of the evolution
of Anglo-American relations sealed by expats and return migrants from the
United States to its former colonial metropole, Britain. Chapter I
focuses on the interplay between two interconnected notions, “dependence” and
“interdependence” around the transition between decolonisation and
nation-building. It traces back Britain’s path from the Industrial Revolution
to the domination of banking and the service industry, London becoming “the
capital of American credit” [28]. Interdependence was also manifest
through the nineteenth-century Black Atlantic, whose hub Tuffnell locates in
London, Britain at times standing as a racial refuge for American
abolitionists. The most enduring transatlantic ties were nevertheless built
from commercial connections established by merchants, which fostered steadfast
circulation of knowledge and established a community of trade (such as the
cotton trade) and transatlantic careers in a web of “national, international,
and global social and professional networks” [44]. The political
economy of transatlantic connections is further explored in the following
chapter, which focuses on American expats’ contribution to defining American
nationality. The chapter indeed explores a community representative of Americanness
in aristocratic Britain as well as the emergence of a distinct sense of nationalism.
Tufnell raises the question of allegiance, central for elite American settlers
in Britain who were expected to display American independence and behave as valued
representatives of democratic United States abroad while contributing to
defining the nature of transatlantic diplomacy. Yet, American expats were
sometimes faced with condescension as hierarchical structures between the
former colonizer and its colony endured in Britain. This chapter informs us on
what Tuffnell calls the “social world of diplomacy” [75] at a transitional time
when American nationalism was transnational in essence and diplomats as well as
socio-economic elites in Britain both cemented and redefined the relationship
between Britain and the United States in a context marked by postcolonial
anxieties; American claim to nationhood; and hostility towards transatlantic
aristocracy. In the mid-19th century, the American expats made their inclusion
in the British society visible via the intervention of intermediary structures
such as the American Association in London (AAL) which aimed at defending the
expats’ civic rights and representation in Britain. Conflict and
colonialism are at the centre of chapter III entitled “Emigrants’ war”, which explores Anglo-American imperial collaboration in civilizing what they
considered inferior races. The chapter pertinently starts with the study of
Britain’s commercial and military involvement in the Civil War, with Union and
Confederate diplomats aiming for connections, support and sympathies in
Britain. Tuffnel reveals how informal diplomatic activity paved the way for
spaces of political contestation in Britain with the setting up of networks offering
a stage for anti-slavery and abolitionist activists. The interplay
between public diplomacy and philanthropy is the focus of the ensuing chapter,
which hinges on the impact of the Civil War on the establishment of a shared
transatlantic racial identity, with the domination of whiteness and
Anglo-Saxonism over perceived inferior races. Philanthropy also acted as an
intermediary facilitator of transatlantic diplomacy as was the case when the
United States gathered support and relief funds for the 1862 cotton famine in
Britain. In turn, this humanitarian diplomatic gesture reinforced transatlantic
links and inspired sympathy for the Union, the philanthropic network developed
by London-Americans being a case in point for the widespread Union support in
Britain. The notions of
migration and invasion have long been studied as complementary in the
context of colonization and such is the object of chapter V. British reaction
at the perceived invasion of American competitive commerce was indeed
paradoxically counterbalanced by American economic dependence on Britain's
funding and loans. This final chapter concludes the study of nineteenth-century
Anglo-American relations with the celebration of a “new global imperial
partner” [183], American economic domination confirming its lasting
independence from Britain. The newly established and unified Anglo-American
relations were best illustrated by hybrid symbols such as Bernard Partridge’s
Colonel Jonathan J. Bull, a combination of John Bull and Brother Jonathan
published in Punch on 7 January 1899 [182]. The book ends
with an epilogue on the evolution from emigration and colonization to americanization.
The political economy at the core of Anglo-American interdependence
progressively made visible the United States’ growing share in world markets as
well as Britain’s decreasing part in world trade. For instance, the
americanization of Britain in Edwardian Britain was exemplified by the 1902
Crystal Palace exhibition entitled “America in London”, which both displayed
American technological advances and celebrated transnational cultural and
diplomatic connections. The epilogue aptly concludes the reader’s journey
towards a reversal of domination patterns in transatlantic relationships with
examples of economic and cultural americanization of Britain, such as the
building of the London underground undertaken by an American firm - an exemple of conspicuous American technological expertise
and economic investment in Britain. This book is
an important contribution to our understanding of the evolution and defining
features of contemporary Anglo-Saxonism. Tuffnell’s Made in Britain is a
rich and well-written account that encompasses such notions as race, national
identity, transatlantic nationality as well as political economy in migration
studies. It makes the case for American expats’ creation and maintenance of lasting
transnational connections, their influence on the definition of Americanness
and nationalism abroad, and the diplomatic power of migration. One major
study on a similar topic is yet missing from Tuffnell’s bibliography, David
Fitzpatrick’s The Americanisation of Ireland : Migration and
Settlement, 1841–1925 (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Links with
Fitzpatrick’s work on Ireland’s americanization were indeed expected and would
have perfectly completed this study by opening up parallels with similar
contexts of American cultural and economic imperialism as well as the impact of
migration from the United States on the shaping of European national
identities.
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