American Civil War: The Lost Cause And Confederate Nationalism

The American Civil War was fought to meet the pending succession of the eleven states that made up the Confederate States of America. The root causes of differences between the Confederacy and the Union were slavery and sectionalism. Sectionalism refers to playing the needs of one section of the nation over the nation as a whole. In addition to these differences geographical and economic development led to the sense of the nation as divided. The South saw their fighting as “rebuilding the nation”. This redirected their main reason for a desire for independence – the peculiar institution of slavery. The South was upset by the North’s condemnation of slavery, even though their economy benefits from the same forced labor. Their deepening contrast led to a development of a separate national entity. Religious and political justification was important to this development.
Towards the end of the Civil War, the term ‘Lost Cause’ began. Coined by historian Edward Pollard in 1886, his book titled The Lost Cause, provided a chronicle of the South as a way to understand Confederate defeat militarily and the loss the Southern “way of life.” This way of life is characterized by a cotton based economy and traditional, conservative values. It was a movement to maintain the ‘Old South’. The term ‘New South’ was hated in the South because of the connotation …show more content…
In Colors & Blood, Bonner discusses the important symbols that led to a sense of national identity in the Confederacy. Rubin’s book A Shattered Nation, she talks about the use of periodicals and other writings as very important to the Lost Cause. The historians help us understand the important of symbols and personal accounts to our comprehension of the development of Confederate nationalism across the South. When put in conversation, the books give a full picture into self-identity. My paper will