The Saber and Scroll
It is an ongoing frustration that the Lost Cause has not only persisted well beyond the war ’ s sesquicentennial but has of late seen a disturbing resurgence in right-wing politics , rearing its ugly head in controversies over Confederate monuments and public displays of the Stars & Bars . As historians , it is our duty to challenge it , not only because it is fallacious , but also because it is a disgraceful distortion of a central moment in our national history that resulted in the deaths of more than 700,000 Americans . We owe it to the memory of all who perished — north and south — to tell the truth about what happened , warts and all . That is what history is about .
Lost Cause defenders typically wield accusations of political correctness and revisionism as cudgels upon the scholarly consensus they dispute . But history — like science — is supposed to be self-correcting : it is meant to be revised by the latest scholarship . There is nothing politically correct about revealing the truth . If there was revisionism to advance ideology over reality , it was the original Lost Cause myth itself , which spawned a revision of the truth and the propagation of a lie . Its extinguishment is just and necessary .
In that theoretical physics group , we would expect the Einstein detractors banned in an instant . This penalty should likewise fall to those peddling the Lost Cause in history groups . We should of course first attempt to educate the misguided , but if they refuse , they must be blocked . It is our duty to disallow a platform to those who routinely disparage the truth in order to recycle propaganda ; there is no obligation within scholarly discourse to extend freedom of speech to those who would deliberately encourage fabrication . Putting a stop to this is not revisionism , but rather a necessary step to celebrate scholarship over the anecdotal , reality over the imaginary , history over fiction .
Stan Prager MA History , 2014 APU
Stan ,
Thanks so much for your letter . It is definitely important to strive for historical accuracy as much as possible . The Lost Cause movement has assuredly developed over time and persists to this day , especially in light of current events with flag and monument controversies .
The reason this myth has persisted for so long is that it has been ingrained into part of our society . The Daughters of the Confederacy not only propagated this view , they indoctrinated much of the nation ’ s youth through their efforts in education . They pushed it in schools , even going so far as to review curriculum for
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