19 Sep Historical Memory and the “Lost Cause”
Historical Memory and the “Lost Cause”
The “Lost Cause” brings to mind a myriad of different feelings and nuances. At first glance, it is a history presented as an example of an underdog mentality, a romanticized missed opportunity that was the Civil War (as forwarded by Southern apologists). Eric Foner describes this period as a time at the end of Reconstruction that was governmental “abandonment of the dream of racial equality written into laws and the constitution in the 1860s and 70s.” “The Lost Cause” was in fact an interpretation of the American Civil War viewed by most historians as a myth, which attempts to preserve the honor of the South by casting the Confederate defeat in the best possible light. At the end of the 19th century, due to this revisionist historical angle, “in public literature and memoirs by participants, at veteran’s reunions and public memorials, the Civil War became remembered as a tragic family quarrel among white Americans in which black people played no significant part.”
How did this happen?! How, if historical literature is tied to critical evidence, can two sides of a conflict come to such different understandings of what happened and why it happened? Herein lies the difficulty of dealing with manipulations of history and how things are presented. This example is an egregious one (a highly fatal war), but this happens regularly in a number of different forms. It is our job as historians to parse through this in the interest of accurate objectivity in the field. Monuments are reflections of this history and how people try to control it.
In Education Weekly, Stephen Sawchuk posits this: “The monuments themselves tell two stories. On the one hand, it’s about Robert E. Lee. It’s also about what the people who put up the monument want you to believe about Robert E. Lee,” he said. “In suggesting history is being erased by removing these statues, what’s often missed is that monuments already erase history—by selecting what will be remembered and how it will be remembered.”
The assignment here is to understand the short clips and read the media source set to get an understanding about this issue. Peruse the excerpts of contemporary discussion of Confederate statues and the role history has played in contemporary representations of race and law in the US now. In a 500 word minimum write up, address the question below:
1. “America’s national identity is grounded in a shared understanding of American history—the country’s failures, successes, traditions, and ideals. Shape that narrative and you can shape a nation….” How do you think the protests and actions against these monuments have attempted to tell a different story about America’s “failures, successes, traditions and ideals”?
What new insights do you have about the role of images and the arts in the process of social change?
Watch two video to do it
https://www.ted.com/talks/karen_l_cox_debunking_the_myth_of_the_lost_cause_a_lie_emb edded_in_american_history
https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/the-neutral-ground-lesson-plan/confederate-monu ments-video-pov/
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