Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
"The white Southerners do not know who they are, because they do not know who they were. Their true history has been systematically suppressed, or distorted beyond recognition,
So they are - no longer - a people".
"And as mere individuals, the traditional Southerners can no longer defend their basic interests in the national arena, or even in their own homeland. Every demagogue or racial hustler who comes along can guilt trip todays' Southerners
into doing his bidding by bludgeoning them with the "official" history of the South."
Oh God... Beowulf; please look to history, particularly military history before claiming the US in any way was the first to initiate "Total War" as the only way one can claim such is to either willfully ignore a host of history or to be totally ignorant of the subject as well as to contemporary CW era events.
Just as an FYI after you posted your thread underneath the posting rules box a "Similar Threads" box was created. That said I look forward to something new.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
If the goal of the Union was to destroy Southern civilization(if you mean by that, the society based on slaveowning), the answer is yes. They obviously should have done a more through job, but what's past is past.
"The white Southerners do not know who they are, because they do not know who they were. Their true history has been systematically suppressed, or distorted beyond recognition,
So they are - no longer - a people".
"And as mere individuals, the traditional Southerners can no longer defend their basic interests in the national arena, or even in their own homeland. Every demagogue or racial hustler who comes along can guilt trip todays' Southerners
into doing his bidding by bludgeoning them with the "official" history of the South."
Anyone read this yet? Reviews? Thoughts?
Based on what you wrote, I'd say you got the book from a cesspool.
Frankly, if today's white southerners do not know who they are because they don't know who they were, it's because so many Lost Cause artists are doing there best to twist and bend history to their liking they are confused, or
they simply do not care to know, like a majority of this country, north and south, east and west, who couldn't tell you when the Revolutionary War was fought or that is was not Washington who freed the slaves.
But the idea that "their" history has been suppressed is laughable. It's just a shame that there a few folks in the present that think all of Southern history comes down to just four, short years and a failed rebellion that was desperately trying to cling to a dark past.
My thoughts. Thanks for asking.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Frankly, if today's white southerners do not know who they are because they don't know who they were, it's because so many Lost Cause artists are doing there best to twist and bend history to their liking they are confused, or
they simply do not care to know, like a majority of this country, north and south, east and west, who couldn't tell you when the Revolutionary War was fought or that is was not Washington who freed the slaves.
But the idea that "their" history has been suppressed is laughable. It's just a shame that there a few folks in the present that think all of Southern history comes down to just four, short years and a failed rebellion that was desperately trying to cling to a dark past.
My thoughts. Thanks for asking.
Unionblue
You are welcome. But I cannot fail to notice you have not read the book, either.
Read it, and then tell me what makes a man want to take ten years of his life and write such a thing. (I know, already, he told me).
By the time you get up to Roosevelt, you'll get the idea.
"But I cannot fail to notice that you have not read the book, either.
Read it, and then tell me what makes a man want to take ten years of his life and write such a thing."
You know, Beowulf, you remind of the time my wife nagged me to go see the movie "Titanic" with her.
She told me in had great movie stars, wonderful direction, was two years in the making, great special effects, and had a great love story besides as a background against the historic backdrop of the tragic event.
I asked her one thing.
"Does the boat still get hit by an iceberg and sink?"
You provided quotes all lead to the same basic, conclusion, unless they are not accurate depictions of his work. Are they?
All the trumped up crap and all the views of a man that are, in my opinion, (even if it took him ten years of his life to create such a fantasy) are founded on twisted views of actual history, and doesn't explain the plain, historical fact that the South seceded over the issue of slavery.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
When asked by one of his Parliament why he believes so much in America he said: A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out. Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you; one was Jesus Christ and the other was the American GI. One died for your soul; the other for your freedom.
Tony Blair
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
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The South under Siege 1830 - 2000 by Frank Conner 
, if today's white southerners do not know who they are because they don't know who they were, it's because so many Lost Cause artists are doing there best to twist and bend history to their liking they are confused, or 
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