Great Depression

FDR's Inauguration


First Fireside Chat


Fireside Chat: Economic Recovery Program

1920s

Clare Bow
It


Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer 1927

World War I

Woodrow Wilson at White House


Battle of the Somme (trench warfare)

Early Pop Culture

Here are some examples of early films.

Edison Studios
Annie Oakley


Charlie Chaplin


Buster Keaton

The West

The Searchers


Dances with Wolves


Avatar

Reconstruction and the Cult of the Lost Cause

Yesterday we talked about Reconstruction. For Friday we're discussing the Hollitz readings on Reconstruction.

One of the things often said about the Civil War is that the north won the war but the south won the peace. What does this mean? One of the meanings is that the nation came to accept the southern explanation for the war between the states. Historians often link this to the Cult of the Lost Cause. The Cult of the Lost Cause has certain hallmarks. They are, (1) the argument that the war was not about slavery but about state's rights, (2) that slavery was not that bad and certainly not as bad as portrayed by northern abolitionist, (3) a veneration of certain southern leaders and, especially, Robert E. Lee, and (4) that the superior southern military was defeated by the raw, crude, power and size of the north. The Cult of the Lost Cause was not exclusively an academic or scholarly argument. It also appeared in popular culture. Check out these examples.

Birth of a Nation


Gone with the Wind


Gods and Generals


Heritage not Hate