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Title: The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South (The Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) by Drew Gilpin Faust ISBN: 0-8071-1606-8 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Dull prose mars this effort
Comment: She's got some good points, but jargon-laden prose makes this one a sleeper.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but too anecdotal
Comment: This little book is interesting, yet it seems to be hampered by its short format. As a result, the author does not seem wholly successful in describing a Confederate national consciousness . Basically, she argues that notions of evangelicalism, republicanism, and slavery merged into a national ideology; more significantly, she makes a good case that the contradictions within these ideological components effectively tore apart any widespread consensus by the war's end. Certainly, evangelicalism played an important role as Southern ministers became forceful speakers on the justification for war and, later, on the reasons for Southern defeat. Republicanism was a growing source of friction in Dixie in the years leading up to the war, often pitting planters against yeoman whites as elements of the market economy crept into Southern life. Faust's points on republicanism do little to explain a consensus among all whites in favor of Confederate support, though. Many planters attempted to tighten their control of political power in this era, and Faust seems to say they essentially tried to dupe or otherwise talk yeomen whites out of proactive political participation. There is not enough evidence presented here to accurately portray the relationship between different classes of whites. This point also relates to her proposition that a pro-slavery ideology pervaded the entire South and effectively brought about the War for Southern Independence. Faust does not explain why yeoman whites forgot the friction (particular in terms of economics) they increasingly felt during the late antebellum years for slaves and jumped immediately on a proslavery bandwagon. Basically, this book suffers from a common fault prevalent in studies of Southern history--it ignores or passes over the significant political differences between rich and poor whites throughout the South in an effort to brand slavery as the principal cause of the conflict.
Much of Faust's material is anecdotal, and while she does reference her sources extensively in the index (sadly stuck by itself at the back of the book), the constant quotes from "a planter," "a soldier's wife," or "a Methodist minister in North Carolina" are not placed in sufficient context and thus give the impression that the South was a hegemonic, monolithic entity wherein all white men thought alike. The source of this book is a series of lectures, and I feel that hampers the author's arguments--it never allows her to dig below the surface or argue her points to any great depth. Certainly, though, the subject of Confederate nationalism is a subject begging for more study. The topic is so intricate, though, that only a thick monograph filled with detailed argument can adequately address it.
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Title: Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt by Christine Leigh Heyrman ISBN: 080784716X Publisher: University of North Carolina Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory by David W. Blight ISBN: 0674008197 Publisher: Belknap Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Yankee Leviathan : The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877 by Richard Franklin Bensel ISBN: 0521398177 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 25 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $37.00 |
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Title: The Work We Have to Do: A History of Protestants in America by Mark A. Noll ISBN: 0195154975 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: That Old-Time Religion in Modern America: Evangelical Protestantism in the Twentieth Century (The American Ways Series) by D. G. Hart ISBN: 1566634598 Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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