When Yale history professor David Blight wrote Race and Reunion in 2001, he argued that his attempt to discuss how Americans “remembered” the Civil War offered a new interpretation of the conflict.
He termed it “memory studies.”
Blight thought that Southerners—and for a time Northerners as well—remembered it wrong, and they did so consciously:
Reconciliation joined arms with white supremacy in Civil War memory at the semicentennial in an unsteady triumph. Just how enduring that triumph would be was a matter of degree, time, and place. Beleaguered but hardly invisible, emancipationist memory lived on to fight another day. The ‘”peace among the whites” that Douglass had so feared in 1875 had left the country with a kind of Southern victory in the long struggle over Civil War memory. But because of the enduring significance of race in American society, and because it would take another political revolution and the largest mass movement for human rights in our history to crush the nation’s racial apartheid system that had been forged out of the reunion, the first fifty years of remembering the Civil War was but a prelude to future reckonings. All memory is prelude.
Blight later won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Frederick Douglass. It’s easy to understand why from the above passage, a conclusion filled with so many inaccuracies that only historians would believe it.
But his logic is simple: white Americans lied about the War to both themselves and the public, and it was only through the work of people who truly remembered it correctly that modern Americans have been able to overcome their pernicious fabrications.
Blight did discover something incredible. He verified what honest historians had already known for generations. As John Lucas wrote, “History is the remembered past.”
In other words, Blight wrote a history of history. We used to call that historiography. I wish I had known this secret. I could have worked at Yale, too. So could anyone who took traditional historiography courses in graduate school. My degree granting institution eliminated those courses around the time I finished my doctorate. Clyde Wilson taught the American historiography course. It’s not a coincidence that they scrapped it.
I laugh any time I hear someone say they are focusing on “memory studies.” I’ve been doing that my entire career.
Blight did not plow any new ground in Race and Reunion, though he did kick-start the false argument that some South Carolina freedmen were responsible for the first “Memorial Day.” Yet, his conclusion that the South won the War has become a standard argument for the historically ignorant profession.
Anyone who has spent time with the primary materials knows that Southerners (and many Northerners) had the same arguments both before and after the War. The only people who changed their tune were the “emancipationist memory” advocates who turned the War into a holy crusade. This is why Douglass worried about the “peace among whites.” He knew that their (correct) version of the story would become the standard interpretation once Reconstruction came to an end.
These “Righteous Cause” advocates lied for political gain, and activists like Blight have become their most important propagandists.
The “Summer of Love” in 2020 would have been impossible without these “historians.” They have thoroughly erased any vestige of traditional history from most American classrooms.
Anyone who contradicts their claims or offers an alternate, i.e. traditional, interpretation is labeled a “history denier” or a “Lost Causer.” These are meaningless emotional terms designed to stifle debate, much like the use of “racism” in modern discourse.
Those who described Robert E. Lee as a great American, who argued that the central theme of the War was not slavery, or who correctly understand that Southerners were not traitors expressed positions consistent with the memory of many Americans at the time.
When Blight argued that “all memory is prelude,” he correctly identified that historical interpretation is fluid, but in his mind, some memories need to be buried and others promoted.
While history is the “remembered past,” the historian has the obligation to “understand” that past and to let the actors speak for themselves. Historians have never been objective, but they should be honest.
And if they are being honest, then the fact that for generations most Americans remembered Lee with respect and admiration should be the standard interpretation of the man. Anything less would be a lie and a conscious attempt to rewrite the collective memory of the United States.
The views expressed at AbbevilleInstitute.org are not necessarily those of the Abbeville Institute.
The “Righteous Cause” (myth) advocates and other leftists continually bear false witness against the South and her heroes. Bearing false witness…hmm…isn’t that one of the big ten? Not that they care, of course…
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution disenfranchised White Southern Males who had supported the Confederate States of America. It’s the only reason General Robert E. Lee did not become Governor of Virginia or President of the United States. He may not have wanted the titles…but the people wanted to give them to him, and besides, the railroads had already been given the land equivalent of the State of Texas, so there was little reason for the megadonors to disappoint the people. We could have had Lee instead of Grant.
May God bless General Robert E. Lee and all of the Southern patriots who fought to keep an oppressive federal government in its cage.
How did the people of Lee’s time, the people who knew him infinitely better than we do…how did they judge him? When a modern presentist “historian” changes that interpretation 180 degrees, he is exposing himself as manipulative and dishonest.
Some of the coming together of North and South stemmed from Northerners recognizing the disaster of “Reconstruction”–what an inaccurate euphemism. The Southerners’ term for it, “Negro rule,” wasn’t accurate either, as Carpetbaggers merely used blacks to rule. But it was a destructive time for the South, characterized by pervasive corruption and leading to numerous states declaring bankruptcy a 2nd time. The destructiveness of Reconstruction contributed to the South’s decades of poverty after Lincoln’s War. Many Northerners observed this.
Anyone who contradicts their claims or offers an alternate, i.e. traditional, interpretation is labeled a ‘history denier’ or a “Lost Causer.” These are meaningless emotional terms designed to stifle debate, much like the use of “racism” in modern discourse.”
Some of the worst have been or are the so-called “conservative” talk-show bloviators. Including Limbaugh, Wilkow, anybody on Fox, The Righting, Clay and Buck (The Tennessee scalawag and carpetbagger). They seem to truly never have studied any history but that which feels to them like that “shining city on a hill” drivel. They now believe that they will climb the hill of glory singing their so-called “National anthem,” while never understanding The “Star Spangled Banner” nor “Dixie.”
And they dang sure will never understand why there is chaos in Minnesota.
Remember Lee? I doubt most of those could spell his name.
Pity them? Maybe-maybe not.
I believe Rush Limbaugh consciously skirted denigration of the South and Southerners, having near Southern ancestors. He had a wide scope of understanding. Having begun actively pursuing interest in Southern history at the time I first heard Rush, I never heard any slight of Southerners, the closest being defense of contemporary Republicans with an incredulous, “BUT! BUT! Republicans freed the saves!”
Looking back, I can’t believe I payed attention to most of them. Rush was different.
I know of his great popularity and agree that he seemed to have honest intensions. I also believe that he (I also believe this of certain others—but hardly all of “right-wingers”) was a guy who would listen with an open mind. I will always believe that, sadly, he fell under the magic spell of the Infamous William Buckley. In my opinion Mr. Buckley and Mark Levin could be kissin’ cousins.
I believe we’ve discussed Rush before.
Rush was a Buckley/Reagan/W. … Cheney guy. I don’t think at all costs though, mostly simply loathing Dems. No doubt in my mind he would be on the side of Jan. 6 protesters, but wouldn’t have publicly diss’ed old friends the Cheney’s. He warned a few years before that “Democrats do not want elections”. He would’ve loved the current Trump bunch, still may have wondered about some of their overseas adventures. I think he really was a harmless little fuzzball.
Today, in case anyone missed it, is the birthday of both Robert E. Lee and that rather strange Southerner, E. A. Poe, two years apart.
They share also a link to West Point. Unsurprisingly, Gen. Lee’s time there was rather more successful and fruitful. Poe’s not so much so; in fact, if memory serves, he left almost as soon as he got there. I exaggerate, of course, but the poet, fair to say, had not a military bone in his body.
From the streets of Minneapolis-St. Paul to the General Assembly in Richmond, we see the manifestation of everything 260,000 Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines died trying to prevent. We have a mercantilist imperium, thinly disguise as a republican government which has gone mad in its determination to outdo every previous despotic government in history. No Mr. Blight, I think I’ll keep my Lost Cause, I’ll remember it, I’ll teach it and I’ll take pride in it because I try to understand it. It’s what makes me different from the likes of you. Deo Vindice
Ah, yes, Richmond. Spamsausage and her communist myrmidons are going to Californicate The Old Dominion. The economic ramifications will be as bad as what is happening in CA now. Businesses closing, entry level jobs disappearing and unemployment going up and up, AI” data centers expected to open here will go elsewhere, gas prices skyrocketing along with electricity costs, super rich folks leaving for TN, TX and FL and the incredibly foolish and stupid people who voted for them to try and spite Trump will suffer bigly, but are so stupid they will never figure out why things are so bad. Enjoy the socialism you morons. The rest of us know how to survive, a la “Country Boy Can Survive” until the change comes, and it will come. Newsome/Spamsausage 2028./SARC
I just finished re-reading Douglas Southall Freeman’s magisterial biography of Lee. What a true work of art. The copy I have is a first edition signed by the author. It’s one of my most treasured possessions that was handed down to me by my father. Alas, today, this biography is, like Lee himself, condemned to the dust bin of history. I can stomach those who seek to destroy Lee’s military reputation. They are wrong by and large but Lee was not an infallible commander. And Freeman criticizes Lee plenty. It’s not hagiography. As he says of Gettysburg, it was as if on the second day there was no one in charge of the battle. Lee’s biggest weakness was that he was too much a gentleman when in several instances during the war he needed to don the role of the autocrat. Despite this, he was a genius in molding and directing the Army of Northern Virginia against almost hopeless odds. Maybe he isn’t a Caesar, Hannibal or Napoleon. But he surely ranks in a tier not too far below that. That aside, where Lee can be found at fault for mistakes as a general, I challenge any objective man to find serious fault of Lee the man. This is where Freeman shines in his biography. His subject, so masterfully described and backed by irrefutable evidence, is the nearest thing to a man who has ever lived a life of sublime perfection when viewed from the perspective of what a humble, God fearing gentleman should by any accounts should be. I can’t think of any American public figure whose life approaches near perfection as Lee’s does. A true paragon of virtue, leading by example and never through arrogance, character of the sort almost entirely lacking by our public figures and other idolized and looked up to today. Both North and South, this was known almost by universal acclimation (aside from the Radical Republicans and then even amongst those most still admired the man) during the War up through the middle of last century. It is sickening to be a witness to the concerted effort to tarnish Lee’s legacy, or even worse – to erase him from our collective memory. Historical presentism is such a foul lense through which to view history. Yet that is all we get today. It is also one thing for the Left to denigrate our heroes today. But for the so called Right to succumb to this lamentable revisionism is almost too much to bear. We can learn so much about the human existence and the nature of tragedy through Lee’s life. Had he taken the easy road and fought against his home, his Virginia, there is little doubt he would have become the supreme hero of the Union. And had he had one bit of selfish ambition, he would have been na American Caesar catapulted by his military laurels into the White House in 1864. But he did his duty. He did the honorable thing. And he would have done it again even after having gone through the humiliation of Appomattox. One last thought. Lee was many things. But he was no constitutional or political theorist. He had none of the oratorical skills so many of our Founders had. Lee left no tome of wisdom or formal writings such as a Jefferson nor did he have the backings of a theorist like Randolph of Roanoke or some such others as the Agrarians. But we have a body of many thousands of letters he wrote to get a picture of the man and his character. One really stands out to me for its simplicity and eloquence and it covers some political theory. Google the Lee – Acton correspondence. Lord Acton asks Lee for some thoughts of the legacy of the war and Lee pens a brilliant and the condensed statement of his beliefs and it is important in many ways as Davis’s Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Lee’s prescient fear that the powerful central government to emerge from the war as being increasingly despotic at home and aggressive abroad is, among other things noted in the brief letter, as factual a description of what was in his time and would become up to the present, the chief fear with which we as citizens have to endure today.