lost cause? of course it's a lost cause! that why we're here.

What was the Lost Cause?

Oct 30, 2020 · Henry Mosler's 1869 painting entitled The Lost Cause. Wikimedia Commons Henry Mosler's 1869 painting entitled The Lost Cause. Wikimedia Commons. There are six main parts of the Lost Cause myth, the first and most important of which is that secession had little or nothing to do with the institution of slavery.

What is a good book on the Lost Cause?

The Lost Cause can still be seen in the hundreds of statues commemorating Confederate soldiers on the town squares and college campuses of North Carolina. Often funded by groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, most of these statues were erected in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Appearing during a bleak period in the …

What is the Lost Cause ideology of the south?

The Lost Cause version of the war is a caricature, possible, among other reasons, because of the false treatment of slavery and the black people. This false treatment struck at the core of the truth of the war, unhinging cause and effect, depriving the United States of any high purpose, and removing African Americans from their true role as the issue of the war and participants in the …

What is the Lost Cause of the Confederacy?

Dec 16, 2014 · In the essay, he identifies a lost cause as one “associated in the mind and in practice with a hopeless cause: that is, something you support or believe in that can no longer be believed in except...

What was the Lost Cause?

The Lost Cause was a campaign of misinformation and propaganda led by ex-Confederates that framed the South’s reasons for fighting in the Civil War as heroic and just while denying that slavery was central to the conflict.

Why did carpetbaggers come to the South?

Myth: Carpetbaggers came south after the Civil War to take advantage of the decimated economy. Truth: Many Northerners did come to the South after the war, and while some were concerned with making a profit, most genuinely aided in the recovery process. They opened businesses and schools and invested in infrastructure.

Who burned Columbia?

1. Myth: U.S. Army General William T. Sherman’s Union troops burned Columbia to the ground when they arrived in the city in February 1865. Truth: Before Sherman arrived, Confederate General Wade Hampton III ordered his troops to place cotton bales in the streets and burn them rather than allow Union troops to seize them.

What was the Lost Cause myth?

The Lost Cause Myth was developed during Reconstruction as shell-shocked and impoverished Southerners tried to rationalize the institution of slavery and the heroic performance of Confederate leaders and soldiers. As W. J. Cash explains,

What is the Lost Cause version of the war?

Part and parcel of the Myth was a deliberate cover-up of the antiblack evils of Reconstruction. The Lost Cause version of the war is a caricature, possible, among other reasons, because of the false treatment of slavery and the black people.

Who wrote the book The Lost Cause?

The term Lost Cause first appeared in the title of an 1866 book by the Virginian author and journalist Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates. He promoted many of the aforementioned themes of the Lost Cause.

What is the Lost Cause narrative?

Lost Cause narratives typically portray the Confederacy's cause as noble and its leaders and armies as exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry; they posit that the South, though it had greater military skill and courage, was defeated in the American Civil War by the North's greater population and immense industrial power.

Why was the Lost Cause important to the reconciliation process?

The Lost Cause became a key part of the reconciliation process between North and South around 1900 and formed the basis of many white Southerners' postbellum war commemorations.

What is the song of the South about?

The 1946 Disney film Song of the South is the first to have combined live actors with animated shorts. In the framing story, the actor James Baskett played Uncle Remus, a former slave who apparently is full of joy and wisdom despite having lived part of his life in slavery. There is a common misconception that the story takes place in the antebellum period, and that the African-American characters are slaves. One critic said, "Like other similar films of the period also dealing with the antebellum South, the slaves in the film are all good-natured, subservient, annoyingly cheerful, content and always willing to help a white person in need with some valuable life lesson along the way. In fact, they're never called slaves, but they come off more like neighborly workers lending a helping hand for some kind, benevolent plantation owners." Disney has never released it on DVD and the film has been withheld from Disney+. It was released on VHS in the UK several times, most recently in 2000.

What movies are based on the Lost Cause?

Later literature and films. The romanticization of the Lost Cause is captured in film, such as The Birth of a Nation, Gone With the Wind, Song of the South, and Tennessee Johnson —the latter of which the San Francisco Chronicle called "the height of Southern mythmaking".

How did the United Daughters of the Confederacy help promulgate the Lost Cause's ideology?

The United Daughters of the Confederacy helped promulgate the Lost Cause's ideology through the construction of numerous memorials, such as this one in Tennessee. Further information: United Daughters of the Confederacy. Among writers on the Lost Cause, gender roles were a contested domain.

What is the Lost Cause of the Confederacy?

The Lost Cause of the Confederacy, or simply the Lost Cause, is an American pseudo-historical, negationist ideology that advocates the belief that the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was heroic, just, and not centered on slavery. It is also known as a myth or a mythology.

Why normal people hold abnormal ideas

For starters, put aside the idea that people who cling to this myth or others like it are bad, dumb, or ignorant. The best explanations for these beliefs and others like them are found in cognitive and social psychology, not individual flaws. While beliefs differ from person to person, the ways we believe are similar, regardless of who we are.

What next?

Now you wait. The hardest part of these conversations is being patient and trusting in the process. Change happens slowly and often invisibly, like a seed unfurling beneath packed earth — but it does happen.

About the Author

Dr. Karin Tamerius is a political psychiatrist and the founder of Smart Politics, a nonprofit that teaches Democrats how to communicate more persuasively with Republicans. She is also the host of the new Callin podcast, The Smart Politics Show at 8 pm ET on Tuesday nights.