Great Depression

2011-04-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

FDR's Inauguration

First Fireside Chat

Fireside Chat: Economic Recovery Program

1920s

2011-03-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Clare Bow
It

Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer 1927

World War I

2011-03-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

Woodrow Wilson at White House

Battle of the Somme (trench warfare)

Early Pop Culture

2011-02-14T05:36:00.000-08:00

Here are some examples of early films.

Edison Studios
Annie Oakley

Charlie Chaplin

Buster Keaton

The West

2011-01-28T06:10:00.000-08:00

The Searchers

Dances with Wolves

Avatar

Reconstruction and the Cult of the Lost Cause

2009-01-22T04:37:00.000-08:00

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

History 202: US History since 1865

Great Depression

1920s

World War I

Early Pop Culture

The West

Reconstruction and the Cult of the Lost Cause