Abstract
This article represents an exploration of class identity among southerners during the decade preceding the Civil War. Myriad works on class identity in the antebellum era are extant, but few have used sources by Americans living abroad. William Stiles's History of Austria shows consistent amount of sympathy for European nobles and aristocrats during the 1848 Revolution in the Austrian Empire. The book, centered on a historical event that stemmed from class inequality and nationalist thought, provides an interesting lens to address the issue of class culture and identity in the United States. Using Stiles's work, newspapers, and appropriate primary and secondary monographs, the article argues that aristocratic identity in the South remained more influential than recent historians allowed well into the nineteenth century.