Radical Relationships: The Civil War-Era Correspondence of Mathilde Franziska Anneke

Like many of the Europeans who fled to the United States after participating in the Revolutions of 1848, German-American feminist and writer Mathilde Franziska Anneke was deeply involved in the Civil War. She published antislavery fiction and political commentary, plotted to break Wisconsin abolitionist Sherman Booth out of prison, debated the war with individuals ranging from American radical Gerrit Smith to German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle, and followed the fate of German-born soldiers in the Union army, including her own husband. Throughout her remarkable career, Anneke’s intimate relationships informed her politics and sustained her activism. This volume translates selections from Mathilde Anneke’s fascinating correspondence with Fritz Anneke and Mary Booth, making the letters accessible to English-speaking historians, students, and members of the wider public for the first time.