Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History [Hardcover]

David R. Goldfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

Newcomers to the South often remark that southerners, at least white southerners, are still fighting the Civil War-a strange preoccupation considering that the war formally ended more than one hundred and thirty-five years ago and fewer than a third of southerners today can claim an ancestor who actually fought in the conflict. But even if the war is far removed both in time and genealogy, it survives in the hearts of many of the region's residents and often in national newspaper headlines concerning battle flags, racial justice, and religious conflicts. In this sweeping narrative of the South from the Civil War to the present, noted historian David Goldfield contemplates the roots of southern memory and explains how this memory has shaped the modern South both for good and ill.

He candidly discusses how and why white southern men fashioned the myths of the Lost Cause and the Redemption out of the Civil War and Reconstruction and how they shaped a religion to canonize the heroes and reify the events of those fated years. Goldfield also recounts how blacks and white women eventually crafted a different, more inclusive version of southern history and how that new vision has competed with more traditional perspectives.

As Goldfield shows, the battle for southern history, and for the South, continues-in museums, public spaces, books, state legislatures, and the minds of southerners. Given the region's growing economic power and political influence, the outcome of this war is more than a historian's preoccupation: it is of national importance. Integrating history and memory, religion, race, and gender, Still Fighting the Civil War will help newcomers, longtime residents, and curious outsiders alike attain a better understanding of the South and each other.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The South, according to Goldfield, has a serious identity crisis regarding race. An example: Kentucky was a Northern state during the Civil War, yet today Todd County, Ky., holds a "Miss Confederacy" contest in which the winner is judged by her "poise, hair, hooped skirt, and answers to questions such as `What will you do... to promote and defend Southern heritage?' " But the biggest divide is between the experiences of whites and blacks, and this provocative book raises the difficult question of how and if Southern history can honor the different, often deeply antithetical experiences of black and white Southerners. Goldfield (Black, White, and Southern: Race Relations and Southern Culture), professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, carefully uncovers and dissects many aspects of Southern history how evangelical Christianity evolved to embrace white supremacy; the role white women assumed as wives and mothers in maintaining and promoting the unequal racial status quo after the Civil War; Booker T. Washington's call to Southern blacks "to submit to segregation... in exchange for white assistance in gaining educational opportunities" and charts the myriad ways in which, according to the author, racism has become accepted and integral to how Southern heritage is conceptualized. Goldfield's main focus, however, is in making the case that while blacks and whites have held radically different visions of it, a more unified Southern history is possible. Goldfield notes that "the danger is that both visions will reside, as do the races, in parallel universes"; he points out that while 100 Southern cities have renamed streets to honor Martin Luther King, most "run through dilapidated black neighborhoods." Drawing on a wide range of sources as well as contemporary reporting, this deftly written historical analysis takes on a difficult topic with passion, sensitivity and integrity.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Goldfield (history, Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte) focuses on how race, religion, and Civil War history have shaped Southern culture. He discusses how Southern white men turned the Civil War and the Reconstruction era into the "Lost Cause" and "Redemption" in an effort to restore the principles on which Southern society rested, namely, white supremacy and patriarchy. The first part of the book focuses on the white male establishment's efforts to maintain the status quo. Goldfield then describes how white and African American women and, finally, African American men slowly but steadily worked toward equality. The author argues that, despite a great deal of progress, the South continues to be burdened by its past, citing the recent South Carolina flag controversy as an example. Goldfield's narrative consists of short historical vignettes drawn from history, journals, diaries, and novels interspersed with his own musings and opinions, making it more a compilation of interesting stories and reflections than a social history of the period. Recommended only for academic libraries with comprehensive Southern history collections. Robert K. Flatley, Frostburg State Univ., MD
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press; illustrated edition edition (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807127582
• ISBN-13: 978-0807127582
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #951,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Real South", January 4, 2003

By 

Anthony Tillman (Willingboro, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History (Hardcover)

David Goldfield does an excellent job at discussing how white southerners have justified the purpose of the civil war. He sites examples of politicians and how they have used racial issues in their favor. The book also discusses how southerners has "changed" the civil war and reconstruction so that it portrays its' people in the best light. I have read other race/cultural books ("End of Rasicm" by Dinesh D'Souza & "America in Black and White" by Stephan & Abigail Thernstrom) and this book is the first one that offers a good EXPLANATION of why things occurred as they did down south. It was also timely because of the recent comments of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. In fact, Mr. Lott was discussed in the book regarding his speeches at meetings with the Council of Conservative Citizens. I recommend this book because it is well written and it tells the truth about the most intriging part of our wonderful nation, The South.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius Insights into Conflicted Past!, March 16, 2011

By 

Peter P. Fuchs (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History (Paperback)

I can barely express my greatest admiration for the insight contained in this book. Goldfield handles the most difficult aspects of the past with such aplomb that it is incredible. And with a seeming ease which is also incredible, for it surely was not easy, he anatomizes the the stylistic tropes of prevarication in the past. But he does it with such a feeling of appreciation for his subjects, mixed with sure-handed opprobrium too. The result in this book is a goldmine of great insights and very useful historical context. I say "useful" because it was really this book that gave me the over-arching model or template for a very challenging paper that I wrote recently. More importantly, it gave me the proper spirit in which to write it. I am aiming to having the paper published by an historical society publication in the future, where surely it will be helpfully edited. But in the meantime, I have published online the whole mass of the research in my article: "The Enigmatic Code of the South and the Cultural Genesis of the Scottish Rite's Mother Council." by Peter Paul Fuchs, 32 --available by searching for my blog Fraternal Studies under "ppfuchs". I felt that I wanted to get it online because matters in the news, here and there, touch on the issues it raises for the issues of Fraternalism in the South. And that such a research paper serves a dialogical need on such issues.

16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Understanding and the South, March 1, 2003

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History (Hardcover)

The American South has always been a paradox. It has been viewed, both by those within and without it, as a distinctive region of the United States with its own character and identity. This separateness is the source of much of the fascination with the South. But in addition to its distinct character, the South has also been viewed as internally monolithic. As David Goldfield, Professor of History at the Univesity of North Carolina at Charolotte, states in the introduction to this book: [Southern] culture is rich in music, food, conversation, and literature; yet, it can be a barren place, a tundra of conformity, a murderer of imagination, inquiry, and innovation." (p.1)

Professor Goldfield states that the aim of his book, "Still Fighting the Civil War", is not simply to write a history of what the South is and of how it is different. Rather the book attempts to explore why Southerners have understood their history the way they do. Thus the goal of the book is to achieve some self-understanding of the South by people who consider themselves Southerners and to achieve better understanding of what has made the South what it is by those not Southerners. Equally important, Professor Goldfield suggests approaches for a more inclusive way in which the South might use its history to emphasize the common past shared by all Southerners, white and black, and the contributions that both races have made to the development of the South. Attempts at self-understanding, of persons or regions, are notoriously difficult. Professor Goldfield commendably admits that although he has spent much more than half his life in the South, "I do not pretend to understand it yet. Perhaps I never will." (p. 1)

Professor Goldfield emphasizes the manner in which white Southerners have viewed the Civil War and Reconstuction. With the total military defeat, loss of life and property, and destruction of slavery, Southerners created a vision of the War and their society to save themselves. This vision included a romantization of the Old South, (exemplified in, "Birth of a Nation", "Gone with the Wind" and many other sources), a myth of the "Lost Cause" with glorification of leaders such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, and a story of "the Redeemers" who ended the Reconstuction efforts in the South through intimidation and violence and instituted segregation and white supremacy. (For a current example of the glorification of the Southern War effort and its generals, I suggest a viewing of the newly-released movie, "Gods and Generals.")

Professor Goldfield discusses how and why the South used its myth of its past in the development of its evangelical religion and its implementation of Jim Crow. He devotes a great deal of space to the place of gender in the South. Professor Goldfield points out that white male Southerners tried to justify Jim Crow by the alleged need to protect white women from the sexuality of black men, but he goes further than that. He states that white men attempted to put white women on a pedestal following the Civil War, and he attributes a great deal of gender discrimination to this attempt. I am not convinced by all this and I am not sure that Professor Goldfield shows how women's issues differed in the South from those in the North. Certainly, the relationship between women and men has changed markedly in both regions.

Professor Goldfield talks about the changes wrought in the South by the Civil Rights movement culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1965. He applauds the changes and the fall of segregation, but he offers strong reasons to doubt if the change is as extensive as it seems. He believes that black and white people still live essentially separate lives in the South with too little in the way of intimacy and fellowship between people of the different races. He believes that there is a great deal of racism left in the South under the veneer of desegregation.

The book is at its strongest and most eloquent when it points to the common heritage that both black and white Southerners share. Blacks in the region consider themselves as Southerners no less than do the whites, and the Region shares a common culture in music (blues, jazz, early rock, country), literature, food, religion, and in the pace of life. In addition Professor Goldifield writes that that the division of the races under Jim Crow belied the affection between individuals of different races that was a frequent pattern of life in the South.

Professor Goldfield conculdes that the South is inescapably a product of its history. He suggests a modification of this history in the minds of Southerners and others to eliminate the myths, to accept and understand the end of the Civil War and of racism, and to focus on the many valuable things that white Southerns and black Southerners, separately and in common, have done to make the South what it is and to allow it to move forward. This is a worthy goal. Professor Goldfield's book may be a small step in bringing it about.