The Cynical Historian
Published 16 Apr 2020The Lost Cause Myth has changed American history. Though it is a hateful ideology today, to ignore it is to give it power. We must understand the myth in order to defeat it.
————————————————————
Connected videos [see YouTube description for linked videos to parts of this discussion]
————————————————————
See pinned comment and its replies for references, notes, responses, and errata
————————————————————
Support the channel through PATREON:
https://www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorianLET’S CONNECT:
Discord: https://discord.gg/Ukthk4U
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cynical_History
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CynicalHistory/
————————————————————
Wiki: The Lost Cause of the Confederacy, or simply the Lost Cause, is an American pseudo-historical, negationist ideology which holds the view that the cause of the Confederacy during the American Civil War was a just and heroic one. The ideology endorses the supposed virtues of the antebellum South, viewing the war as a struggle which was primarily waged in order to save the Southern way of life, or to defend “states’ rights”, in the face of overwhelming “Northern aggression.” At the same time, the Lost Cause minimizes or completely denies the central role of slavery in the buildup to and outbreak of the war.Particularly intense periods of Lost Cause activity occurred around the time of World War I, as the last Confederate veterans began to die out and a push was made to preserve their memories, and they also occurred during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, in reaction to growing public support for racial equality. Through activities such as building prominent Confederate monuments and writing school history textbooks, they sought to ensure that future generations of Southern whites would know about the South’s “true” reasons for fighting the war, and support white supremacist policies, such as Jim Crow laws. In this manner, white supremacy is a characteristic of the Lost Cause narrative.
The Lost Cause narratives typically portray the Confederacy’s cause as a noble one and they also portray its leaders as exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry, who were defeated by the Union armies through numerical and industrial force that overwhelmed the South’s superior military skill and courage. Proponents of the Lost Cause movement also condemned the Reconstruction that followed the Civil War, claiming that it had been a deliberate attempt by Northern politicians and speculators to keep the South down. The Lost Cause theme has also evolved into a major element in defining gender roles in the white South, in terms of preserving family honor and chivalrous traditions. The Lost Cause has inspired numerous Southern memorials and religious attitudes.
————————————————————
Hashtags: #history #LostCause #Mythology
