The Lost Cause, which reports on the American Civil War events, downplays the value of slavery in this conflict and focuses on the North’s aggression in opposition to the South and its mode of life. Gallagher and Waugh (2019) claim that this is an interpretation of the American Civil War that aims to present the war from a Confederate perspective in the best possible way. This narrative was promoted and actively consolidated in American society.
According to Blight (1993), part of this sustainability is due to his insertion in diverse institutions, including universities in the South, the historians they hire, and the courses they offer. In turn, Deslandes et al. (2017) note that the UDC monitored public school textbooks to ensure the Confederation’s history was fair, censoring lessons that might have admired Abraham Lincoln and disparaged Jefferson Davis.
Moreover, famous cultural works have strengthened and spread the Lost Cause narrative to a greater audience. According to The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook (2020), this included Ken Burns’ cult documentary Civil War on the US public service broadcasting system. The series, created in 1990, reached a broad audience but reflected only a selective estimation of the American Civil War, refuting the notion that slavery appeared one of its fundamental causes. Furthermore, poetry acted as the essential tool for creating the memory of the Lost Cause. Carlsten (2019) asserts that Sentinel Songs by Abram J. Ryan, Bivouac of the Dead by Theodore O’Hara, and Memoriae Sacrum by James Erber reflect the ex-Confederate explanation of the civil war. Thus, The Lost Cause narrative was reinforced in American society through literature and cinema.
One of the most prominent examples of the development of the idea was the building and installing monuments and sculptures of Confederate warriors throughout the South, most of which were located in public places, including parks, courts, and schools. Today, these statues are the subject of public controversy, debate, and repeated attacks. According to Steele (2020), attention to them is increasing in conditions of heightened racial tension.
Likewise, civic activists promoted tourism that honored elite white historic sites. According to The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook (2020), these include plantations, churches, and notable war sites such as the battlefields or deaths of Stonewall Jackson, General J.E.B. Stuart, and Sam Davis. Many of these locations still form the backbone of the modern tourism industry in several states. Therefore, TheLost Cause narrative was reinforced in American society through literature, architecture, cinema, and the education system, and today the attention to this topic is increasing.
References
Blight, D.W. (1993). What will peace among the whites bring: Reunion and race in the struggle over the memory of the civil war in American culture. The Massachusetts Review,34(3), 393-410.
Carlsten, S. G. (2019) Sentinel songs: Monuments, poetry, and the lost cause narrative in collective memory. Journal of Undergraduate Research at Ohio State, 9. Web.
Deslandes, K., Mourlon, F., & Tribout B. (Eds.). (2017). Civil war and narrative: Testimony, historiography, memory. Palgrave Macmillan.
Gallagher, G. W.& Waugh, J. (2019) The American War: A history of the Civil War era (2nd ed.). Flip Learning.
Steele, B. (2020) Juxtapositioned memory: Lost Cause statues and sites of lynching. Modern Languages Open 1(1), 1–13. Web.
The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook. (2020). Lost cause myth. The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook. Web.