Description: The myth of the Lost Cause posits the following notion: that the Confederacy was doomed from the start in its struggle against the superior might of the Union, but its forces fought heroically against all odds for the cause of states' rights. In reality, this was and is an elaborate and intentional effort on the part of Southerners to rationalize the secession and the war itself. Unfortunately, skillful propagandists (beginning with Jubal Early) have been so successful in promoting this romanticized view that the Lost Cause has assumed a life of its own, leaving truth in the dust. Misrepresenting the war's true origins and its actual course, the myth of the Lost Cause distorts our national memory. The controversy currently raging in South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas over the display of Confederate symbols illustrates the power and saliency of this myth. In this volume, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying the ways in which it falsifies history. They have created a thoughtful and provocative volume that makes a major contribution to Civil War historiography.

Please Wait