摘要：Before and after the Civil War, German immigrants had a key role in shaping the future of the United States. Scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, such as Bruce Levine, Stan Nadel, and Mischa Honeck, have acknowledged German- Americans' importance, and have contributed to explain the ways in which they influenced the history of the U.S. in one of its foundational moments. German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era is a significant addition to this robust, yet still fruitful, body of literature. Alison Clark Efford's book reconstructs the history of German immigrants in the Mid-West during the central decades of the nineteenth century. The American scholar creates a coherent narrative based on the analysis of what she terms 'the German-language public sphere' (11), a vast area of public debate that involved German immigrant communities in big industrial centres such as Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee and was animated by American press in German language. The text benefits enormously from the expertise of an author possessing German language skills: this allows Efford to base the book on a vast range of first-hand sources.
