* Prologue *1. The Dead and the Living *2. Regeneration and Reconstruction *3. Decoration Days *4. Reconstruction and Reconciliation *5. Soldiers' Memory *6. Soldiers' Faith *7. The Literature of Reunion and Its Discontents *8. The Lost Cause and Causes Not Lost *9. Black Memory and Progress of the Race *10. Fifty Years of Freedom and Reunion * Epilogue * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index
David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of many books, including Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History, and Race and Reunion (Harvard), which received the Bancroft Prize and Frederick Douglass Prize, among other awards.
The most comprehensive and insightful study of the memory of the
Civil War yet to appear…Blight tells this story in a lucid style
and with an entirely appropriate measure of indignation…Race and
Reunion demonstrates forcefully that…it still matters very much how
we remember the Civil War.
*New York Times Book Review*
[This book] will strongly influence the writing of post–Civil War
history for decades to come. Indeed, Race and Reunion is surely one
of the four or five most important works in American history
written in the past decade…Blight explains one of the most
troubling questions for the understanding of American history: why
it became accepted wisdom from the 1870s to the 1960s, among
American historians as well as white students from grade school
through college, that states’ rights, not slavery, was the cause of
the Civil War or, as many Southerners have long insisted on our
calling it, ‘the War Between the States.’
*New York Review of Books*
As Blight conclusively demonstrates, the United States was caught
up almost immediately in a ‘tormented relationship between healing
and justice,’ and the abolitionist, emancipationist view of the
war’s aims quickly receded into the background…African Americans
kept alive their own memories of slavery, the war and
Reconstruction…but not until long after World War I did they begin
to find a hearing for their grievances and yearnings.
*Washington Post Book World*
This is a story of mammoth and tragic sweep, with consequences that
are very much alive in present-day America. David Blight tells it
with a passionate, soulful voice, a voice of conviction based on an
intimate knowledge of a sweeping array of sources. Race and Reunion
is a brilliant book.
*Providence Sunday Journal*
Blight’s analysis is compelling. His writing has a lyrical quality
that underscores the tragic story he has to tell. This is an
important book that should command a wide readership among those
interested in race relations in the US. It should be required
reading in Mississippi.
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
[Blight’s] deeply researched and carefully crafted study argues
that after the war white veterans, Union and Confederate,
facilitated the reconciliation of the two sections by consciously
avoiding the fact that slavery had brought on the sectional
conflict, choosing instead to celebrate the courage that they and
their comrades had brandished in battle. Less consciously, they and
their fellow Americans found this new narrative—this rewriting of
history based on a kind of historical amnesia—comforting and
restorative. Reunification became a joyful event, but it came at a
steep price. After Reconstruction, Northerners and Southerners
alike took hold of a ‘Lost Cause’ ideology that showed pity toward
the South in its defeat, accepted Jim Crow policies that deprived
blacks of their civil rights, and pushed for policies and practices
that would ensure white supremacy across the land. Blight carefully
avoids grinding axes as he makes his argument, which taken as a
whole helps to explain why America today continues to wrestle with
the seemingly endless and divisive issue of race…Here is a powerful
book, artfully written by a scholar of learned poise who believes
that by knowing the past we might better know ourselves.
*Salon*
Denying that the South fought for slavery was a key element in a
decades-long ideological battle eventually settled in a devil’s
bargain: reconciliation between whites North and South, purchased
at the price of racial segregation…Race and Reunion is a deeply
unsettling, pioneering work that raises far more questions than it
can possibly answer: questions that should continue to trouble
us…The myths and lies forged over a century ago still have us
locked in their chains.
*Philadelphia City Paper*
Blight’s eclecticism and erudition make this sweeping historical
saga a pleasure to read…Race and Reunion challenges us to take
seriously the clashes over the Civil War’s contested legacies and
symbols, which Americans continue to debate.
*American Prospect*
Blight demonstrates how, in the aftermath of the war, the needs of
memory and the excessive focus on battlefield experience all but
obliterated the role played by African Americans, and the promises
made them. All told, this thoughtful, timely study presents a
somewhat pessimistic view of the role played by the memory of this
key conflict in the making of American's self-image, which, in the
turn to sentiment rather than fact, lost much of its ideological
integrity.
*History*
One of the most fascinating and rewarding scholarly books of the
past few years for the general reader with an interest in American
history…Blight is scrupulously fair in his judgments. He is equally
alert to the Northern white self-congratulation that inflated the
legend of the Underground Railroad and the racist pretension that
shaped the version of history peddled by the United Daughters of
the Confederacy. He is especially alert to the way that
even-handedness has served as a tool for suppressing memory of the
moral issues at the heart of the Civil War by turning attention to
the spectacle of combat and the bravery of the soldiers on both
sides…It is a contribution to contemporary politics and culture
that deserves a wide audience.
*Thomas J. Brown, author of Civil War Canon*
This book effectively traces both the growth and development of
what became, by the turn of the twentieth century and the debut of
The Birth of a Nation, the dominant racist representation of the
Civil War. A major work of American history, this volume’s
documentation of the active and exceedingly articulate voices of
protest against this inaccurate and unjust imagining of history is
just one of its accomplishments.
*Publishers Weekly*
Blight has distilled a mass of historical material into an
impressive, clearly written volume that…reads well and rings
true.
*Kirkus Reviews*
Blight traces America’s tragic pursuit of national reunification
and reconciliation after the Civil War at the expense of the
conflict’s emancipationist legacy. He ponders such threats to this
legacy as Lost Cause myths, fading and sometimes revisionist
veteran recollections, financial panics and commercial greed,
political scandals, ‘loyal’ slave narratives, urbanization and
industrialization, and the emotionally charged rituals of
war-related celebration days among others. The author resurrects
the voices and prose of African American activists who fought to
preserve the emancipationist legacy in an indifferent, even
hostile, milieu.
*Library Journal*
Blight recounts the strong tide in the post-war years for ‘reunion
on Southern terms’…Freed blacks suffered the consequence of the
ascendance of a sentimental view of the war and amnesia about its
central issue.
*Booklist*
The most comprehensive and insightful study of the memory of the
Civil War yet to appear...Blight tells this story in a lucid style
and with an entirely appropriate measure of indignation...Race
and Reunion demonstrates forcefully that...it still matters
very much how we remember the Civil War. -- Eric Foner * New York
Times Book Review *
[This book] will strongly influence the writing of post-Civil War
history for decades to come. Indeed, Race and Reunion is
surely one of the four or five most important works in American
history written in the past decade...Blight explains one of the
most troubling questions for the understanding of American history:
why it became accepted wisdom from the 1870s to the 1960s, among
American historians as well as white students from grade school
through college, that states' rights, not slavery, was the cause of
the Civil War or, as many Southerners have long insisted on our
calling it, 'the War Between the States.' -- David Brion Davis *
New York Review of Books *
As Blight conclusively demonstrates, the United States was caught
up almost immediately in a 'tormented relationship between healing
and justice,' and the abolitionist, emancipationist view of the
war's aims quickly receded into the background...African Americans
kept alive their own memories of slavery, the war and
Reconstruction...but not until long after World War I did they
begin to find a hearing for their grievances and yearnings. --
Jonathan Yardley * Washington Post Book World *
This is a story of mammoth and tragic sweep, with consequences that
are very much alive in present-day America. David Blight tells it
with a passionate, soulful voice, a voice of conviction based on an
intimate knowledge of a sweeping array of sources. Race and
Reunion is a brilliant book. * Providence Sunday Journal *
Blight's analysis is compelling. His writing has a lyrical quality
that underscores the tragic story he has to tell. This is an
important book that should command a wide readership among those
interested in race relations in the US. It should be required
reading in Mississippi. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
[Blight's] deeply researched and carefully crafted study argues
that after the war white veterans, Union and Confederate,
facilitated the reconciliation of the two sections by consciously
avoiding the fact that slavery had brought on the sectional
conflict, choosing instead to celebrate the courage that they and
their comrades had brandished in battle. Less consciously, they and
their fellow Americans found this new narrative-this rewriting of
history based on a kind of historical amnesia-comforting and
restorative. Reunification became a joyful event, but it came at a
steep price. After Reconstruction, Northerners and Southerners
alike took hold of a 'Lost Cause' ideology that showed pity toward
the South in its defeat, accepted Jim Crow policies that deprived
blacks of their civil rights, and pushed for policies and practices
that would ensure white supremacy across the land. Blight carefully
avoids grinding axes as he makes his argument, which taken as a
whole helps to explain why America today continues to wrestle with
the seemingly endless and divisive issue of race...Here is a
powerful book, artfully written by a scholar of learned poise who
believes that by knowing the past we might better know ourselves.
-- Glenn W. LaFantasie * Salon *
Denying that the South fought for slavery was a key element in a
decades-long ideological battle eventually settled in a devil's
bargain: reconciliation between whites North and South, purchased
at the price of racial segregation...Race and Reunion is a
deeply unsettling, pioneering work that raises far more questions
than it can possibly answer: questions that should continue to
trouble us...The myths and lies forged over a century ago still
have us locked in their chains. * Philadelphia City Paper *
Blight's eclecticism and erudition make this sweeping historical
saga a pleasure to read...Race and Reunion challenges us to
take seriously the clashes over the Civil War's contested legacies
and symbols, which Americans continue to debate. -- Catherine
Clinton * American Prospect *
Blight demonstrates how, in the aftermath of the war, the needs of
memory and the excessive focus on battlefield experience all but
obliterated the role played by African Americans, and the promises
made them. All told, this thoughtful, timely study presents a
somewhat pessimistic view of the role played by the memory of this
key conflict in the making of American's self-image, which, in the
turn to sentiment rather than fact, lost much of its ideological
integrity. -- Fionghuala Sweeney * History *
One of the most fascinating and rewarding scholarly books of the
past few years for the general reader with an interest in American
history...Blight is scrupulously fair in his judgments. He is
equally alert to the Northern white self-congratulation that
inflated the legend of the Underground Railroad and the racist
pretension that shaped the version of history peddled by the United
Daughters of the Confederacy. He is especially alert to the way
that even-handedness has served as a tool for suppressing memory of
the moral issues at the heart of the Civil War by turning attention
to the spectacle of combat and the bravery of the soldiers on both
sides...It is a contribution to contemporary politics and culture
that deserves a wide audience. -- Thomas J. Brown, author of
Civil War Canon
This book effectively traces both the growth and development of
what became, by the turn of the twentieth century and the debut of
The Birth of a Nation, the dominant racist representation of
the Civil War. A major work of American history, this volume's
documentation of the active and exceedingly articulate voices of
protest against this inaccurate and unjust imagining of history is
just one of its accomplishments. * Publishers Weekly *
Blight has distilled a mass of historical material into an
impressive, clearly written volume that...reads well and rings
true. * Kirkus Reviews *
Blight traces America's tragic pursuit of national reunification
and reconciliation after the Civil War at the expense of the
conflict's emancipationist legacy. He ponders such threats to this
legacy as Lost Cause myths, fading and sometimes revisionist
veteran recollections, financial panics and commercial greed,
political scandals, 'loyal' slave narratives, urbanization and
industrialization, and the emotionally charged rituals of
war-related celebration days among others. The author resurrects
the voices and prose of African American activists who fought to
preserve the emancipationist legacy in an indifferent, even
hostile, milieu. * Library Journal *
Blight recounts the strong tide in the post-war years for 'reunion
on Southern terms'...Freed blacks suffered the consequence of the
ascendance of a sentimental view of the war and amnesia about its
central issue. -- Gilbert Taylor * Booklist *
Blight (history and black studies, Amherst Coll.; Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee) traces America's tragic pursuit of national reunification and reconciliation after the Civil War at the expense of the conflict's emancipationist legacy. He ponders such threats to this legacy as Lost Cause myths, fading and sometimes revisionist veteran recollections, financial panics and commercial greed, political scandals, "loyal" slave narratives, urbanization and industrialization, and the emotionally charged rituals of war-related celebration days, among others. The author resurrects the voices and prose of African American activists who fought to preserve the emancipationist legacy in an indifferent, even hostile, milieu. Blight notes that the process of national reconstruction was rooted in an American paradox: "the imperative of healing and the imperative of justice could not, ultimately, cohabit the same house. The one was the prisoner of memory, the other a creature of law." Recommended for most libraries, particularly those with strong African American collections.DJohn Carver Edwards, Emeritus Univ. of Georgia Libs. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
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