The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History - Paperback

by Gary W. Gallagher (Editor), Alan T. Nolan (Editor)

The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History posits the 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. Beginning with Jubal Early, skillful propagandists have been so successful in promoting this romanticized view that the Lost Cause has assumed a life of its own. By misrepresenting the war's true origins and its actual course, the myth of the Lost Cause distorts our national memory. In this book, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying the ways in which it falsifies history. This is a thoughtful and provocative volume that makes a major contribution to Civil War historiography.

Author Biography

Gary W. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He has written or edited a number of books in the field of Civil War-era history, including, most recently, The Confederate War, Lee and His Generals in War and Memory; and Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War.

Alan T. Nolan (1923-2008) is author of Lee Considered: Robert E. Lee and Civil War History and The Iron Brigade: A Military History (IUP, 1994), and editor (with Sharon Eggleston Vipond) of Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade (IUP, 1998).