In this Book
- A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
- Series: Civil War America
summary
Historians often assert that Confederate nationalism had its origins in pre-Civil War sectional conflict with the North, reached its apex at the start of the war, and then dropped off quickly after the end of hostilities. Anne Sarah Rubin argues instead that white Southerners did not actually begin to formulate a national identity until it became evident that the Confederacy was destined to fight a lengthy war against the Union. She also demonstrates that an attachment to a symbolic or sentimental Confederacy existed independent of the political Confederacy and was therefore able to persist well after the collapse of the Confederate state. White Southerners redefined symbols and figures of the failed state as emotional touchstones and political rallying points in the struggle to retain local (and racial) control, even as former Confederates took the loyalty oath and applied for pardons in droves.
Exploring the creation, maintenance, and transformation of Confederate identity during the tumultuous years of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Rubin sheds new light on the ways in which Confederates felt connected to their national creation and provides a provocative example of what happens when a nation disintegrates and leaves its people behind to forge a new identity.
Exploring the creation, maintenance, and transformation of Confederate identity during the tumultuous years of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Rubin sheds new light on the ways in which Confederates felt connected to their national creation and provides a provocative example of what happens when a nation disintegrates and leaves its people behind to forge a new identity.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. 2-7
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. 1-8
- I: War
- Interlude: Only Not a Victory
- pp. 80-85
- Interlude: Peace (with Independence Always)
- pp. 112-116
- II: Reconstruction
- Interlude: The Vicarious Sufferer
- pp. 201-207
- Conclusion
- pp. 240-248
- Bibliography
- pp. 295-314
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469604831
Related ISBN(s)
9780807829288, 9780807855928, 9780807888957
MARC Record
OCLC
649855268
Pages
336
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No