Denis Mack Smith’s Mazzini shows a very positive portrait of Mazzini. He shows the praise that Mazzini reaped throughout his life even while he struggled with Italian national unity (1). Mazzini spent much of his life after his first planned uprising in 1831 in Switzerland and England, plotting innumerable uprisings (2). His primary activities for much of his life were writing and fundraising, both in support of Italian national unity. He recognized that Italy was not ready for the completely egalitarian republic he envisioned, but he felt that his role as the prodding radical would eventually result in the nation-state he saw as inevitable (3). The lack of monetary support from Italy itself continually frustrated him, for he had to turn to English, American, and other sources to fund his constant conspiracies and uprisings (4).
 The high moments of his life came in 1848-49 and 1860, when national unification seemed most likely. In 1849 he became a triumvir of the newly-formed Roman Republic, and Smith speaks glowingly of Mazzini’s role in the government (his only political position in his entire life) and his ability to institute a new republic over an older autocratic papal regime (5). In 1860 he was able to participate in and influence other men to such actions as the annexation of southern Italy and continue the pressure on the official regime to acquire Venetia after 1861. Mazzini was a famous person all over Europe, one whom most that met him called remarkable, one of the great personalities of their age, and many other positive adjectives. Those who had not met him encouraged propaganda against him in Italian and other newspapers.
 Robert Barnwell Rhett spent much of his life fighting for the same type of goal, an independent Southern nation, but he was much more greatly marginalized and cast off after his goal of Southern independence became reality. His life was full of political struggles for himself and for his primary goal of Southern nationalism. Rhett’s activities for secession in the period before the Civil War included many speeches and “rhetorical devices” as well as such grassroots organizations as “Southern Rights Associations” throughout the South (6). The overriding theme of his life was a radical Southern nationalism in many different dimensions, even in his large criticisms of the Davis administration of the Confederacy (7). In terms of sources, it is interesting to note that the primary biography of Rhett until recently was White’s 1931 biography in which she communicates with Rhett’s daughters during her research (8). A simple WorldCat query only shows 2 full biographies of Rhett: the White biography and a work by William C. Davis in 2001. Thus, while most would say his impact was large, his memory has been quite small.
 Joseph Brown of Georgia seems to have a typical Southern background, a “humble origin, meagre [sic] education, and limited political experience” that somehow was able to win the governorship of Georgia in 1857 (9). He managed Georgia until 1865 when the turmoil of Reconstruction began. One of the biggest non-Civil War controversies of his tenure was the question of the Western & Atlantic railroad, whose function as a public enterprise was much debated due to its unprofitability but its value as an avenue for patronage (10). After the war he actually supported Andrew Johnson and his policies during Reconstruction, reassuring him that the two new senators from Georgia in 1866, Alexander Stephens and Herschel V. Johnson would “both support [Johnson’s] policy zealously” (11). After the drama of the end of the war he held several public posts, such as a US senator during the 1880s. In terms of sources, there is very little material from the last 25 years available anywhere. Both the resources immediately available and those I could find in general were at the latest from the 1970s. His resources were more prevalent than Rhett’s, perhaps because of his greater political function as a controller of Georgia for many years.
 Napoleon III was the nephew of Napoleon I (12). He was born during the height of Napoleon I’s empire, but grew up almost entirely abroad in various locations in Italy and other countries. He achieved political power after 1848 and remained there until the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Marks of his reign included the installation of Maximillian of Hapsburg as king of Mexico for a short while and the large amount of intervention in Italy (13). He eventually tried to establish the Rhine as the frontier of France, which led to the Franco-Prussian war and his ouster. He spent his life after 1870 in exile, mostly in England (14). “Death came from an operation in a house in Kent…” (15). Sources on Napoleon III are large and numerous. I counted no fewer than 20 books on the shelves that dealt with Napoleon and his reign during this period; however, I was unable to find much material written beyond the 1970s.


1. Denis Mack Smith, Mazzini (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 24,44-45, 53, 192-195, et al.
2. ibid., 20.
3. ibid., 33-34, 41.
4. ibid., 46-47.
5. ibid., 67-69.
6. Eric H. Walther, The Fire-Eaters (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992), pp.139-140.
7. Laura A. White, Robert Barnwell Rhett: Father of Secession (American Historical Association, 1931), chs. 10-11.
8. ibid., p. vii.
9. Joseph H. Parks, Joseph E. Brown of Georgia (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977), p. 40.
10. ibid., 37-38, 53-59.
11. ibid., 349.
12. W. H. C. Smith, Napoleon III (London: Wayland Publishers, 1972), p. 11.
13. ibid., 175.
14. ibid., 263.
15. ibid.