Product Description

More than 60,000 books have been published on the Civil War. Most Americans, though, get their ideas about the war—why it was fought, what was won, what was lost—not from books but from movies, television, and other popular media. In an engaging and accessible survey, renowned Civil War historian Gary Gallagher guides readers through the stories told in recent film and art, showing how they have both reflected and influenced the political, social, and racial currents of their times. Too often these popular portrayals overlook many of the very ideas that motivated the generation that fought the war. The most influential perspective for the Civil War generation, says Gallagher, is almost entirely absent from the Civil War stories being told today.

Gallagher argues that popular understandings of the war have been shaped by four traditions that arose in the nineteenth century and continue to the present: the Lost Cause, in which Confederates are seen as having waged an admirable struggle against hopeless odds; the Union Cause, which frames the war as an effort to maintain a viable republic in the face of secessionist actions; the Emancipation Cause, in which the war is viewed as a struggle to liberate 4 million slaves and eliminate a cancerous influence on American society; and the Reconciliation Cause, which represents attempts by northern and southern whites to extol "American" virtues and mute the role of African Americans.

Gallagher traces an arc of cinematic interpretation from one once dominated by the Lost Cause to one now celebrating Emancipation and, to a lesser degree, Reconciliation. In contrast, the market for art among contemporary Civil War enthusiasts reflects an overwhelming Lost Cause bent. Neither film nor art provides sympathetic representations of the Union Cause, which, Gallagher argues, carried the most weight in the Civil War era.

This lively investigation into what popular entertainment teaches us and what it reflects about us will prompt readers to consider how we form opinions on current matters of debate, such as the use of the military, the freedom of dissent, and the flying of the Confederate flag.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86096 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

About the Author
Gary W. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author or editor of numerous books, including Lee and His Army in Confederate History and The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864.

Customer Reviews

Media and interpretations of the Civil War
I have reviewed quite a few Civil War books before. This is another of the genre--but with an interesting difference. This is not so much about the conduct of the war itself as about how Hollywood and popular art have treated the Civil War and how their portrayals might be related to what people know about the Civil War. The methodology of this study is pretty straightforward: Gallagher explores a limited number of movies about the conflict--from "Birth of a Nation" and "Gone with the Wind" to "Gettysburg," "Glory," "Red Badge of Courage," "Cold Mountain," "The Horse Soldiers," with passing references to other movies such as "The Outlaw Josie Wales." In addition, he examines the art of such well known Civil War artists as Dan Troiani.

He begins by positing four images of the Civil War--(a) The Lost Cause (the Confederacy as doomed by superior Union resources, while fighting for Constitutional purity; (b) The Union Cause (the attempt by the North to preserve a national republic in the face of secession); (c) The Emancipation Cause (an interpretation of the Civil War as attempting to end slavery); (d) the Reconciliation Cause (emphasizing the common traditions and values of both parties in the struggle). In addition, he notes how coverage sometimes emphasizes heroes/actions that may overplay some actors and underplay the work of others.

This is an interesting book to consider. Gallagher does a nice job examining each of the movies that he discusses (and the art that he considers, many pieces of which are displayed in the penultimate chapter). He also makes a strong case that the recent focus on Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain may be explainable by three events: Ken Burns' PBS series on the Civil War, the book "The Killer Angels," and the movie "Gettysburg." He suggests that there were other Union units facing even more difficult circumstances at Gettysburg--and did not get half the acclaim as the stand of the 20th Maine. Indeed, there are those who claim that Chamberlain did a nice job of self-promotion with his various books and speeches after the Civil War (personally, given his entire body of work as an officer, I think he had an estimable record--but I do understand the argument very well, exemplified by his rather churlish response to his opponent, Colonel Oates, years later).

Still, how much can one claim based on a small set of movies? What is the evidence that these selected movies and objets d'art have had much impact on our view of the Civil War? I think that Gallagher raises important issues and questions. I'm not so sure that he attains the goals he set for himself. Nonetheless, an interesting view of the Civil War through the prism of popular art.

What about the Slave Power?
The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue

Gary Gallagher is right to point out the fact that the union cause in the American Civil War has been almost banished from popular memory, cinema, and works of art. However, he totally ignores the importance of the Slave Power as a cause of the war and the danger that slavery posed to ordinary white citizens and the existence of the American republic. That is a reality that has been totally buried.

For example, contrary to the neo-confederate view that the "War Between the States" was fought to free Southern states from the "tyranny" of the federal government (Lost Cause), the antebellum period was characterized by Northern states asserting their rights and sovereignty against a proslavery federal tyranny. In addition to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, the North felt the power of the South and the tyranny of proslavery forces in these ways:

-From 1836 to 1844 pro-slavery forces in the House of Representatives passed and implemented the so-called "gag rule," a nullification of the First Amendment right of free speech whereby antislavery petitions to Congress were no longer heard.

-From the 1830s until the Civil War, the Southern pro-slavery forces censored the United States mail. Postmasters were forbidden to deliver antislavery literature into the slave states.

-In 1845 Texas was annexed as a slave state.

-In 1846 the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery from the territories acquired in the Mexican-American War was defeated by proslavery forces in Congress.

-The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 negated the Missouri Compromise and made slavery possible in any of the territories. New states that came from the territories could easily become slave states, thereby increasing Southern power.

-A proslavery U.S. Supreme Court existed from the 1840s until the Civil War.

I strongly recommend the following books on the Slave Power in addition to Gallagher's work:

-The Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860 by Leonard Richards

-The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue by Lawrence R. Tenzer

Filtering the past
Different periods and different constituencies "remember" the past to be what they need it to be, and collective memories especially try to infuse a meaning into past events that are traumatic. It should come as no surprise, then, that there are a number of ways in which the Civil War, surely our single greatest national trauma, has been "remembered" by succeeding generations. In Causes Won, Lost, & Forgotten, Civil War scholar Gary Gallagher focuses on four filters through which we've remembered the Civil War and examines how popular film and art have expressed those memories.

Gallagher argues that the going four interpretive traditions when it comes to the Civil War are the Lost Cause (the Confederate army fought honorably against overwhelming odds), the Union Cause (the war was fought to preserve the American experiment in democracy), the Emancipation Cause (the war was fought to end the egregious injustice of slavery), and the Reconciliation Cause (the war, although tragic, brought together all Americans, northerners and southerners, each of whom had fought honorably). Three of these attempts to read meaning back into the Civil War--the Lost Cause, Union Cause, and Reconciliation--tend either to ignore or to trivialize African Americans.

Gallagher traces the presence of these four interpretations in both film and artwork that have the Civil War as their theme. Early cinema focused almost entirely on the Lost Cause filter, but more recent films move toward Emancipation and Reconciliation. The Union Cause seems not to resonate deeply with viewing audiences, although it was the paramount motivation for northern enthusiasm for the war. Traces of the Union Cause can be found in cinema--Gallagher especially notes its presence in Ron Maxwell's films--but it's certainly not dominant. In fact, post-Vietnam Civil War films tend if anything to portray Federal soldiers and anything smacking of nationalism in a harsh way.

Even as films have backed away from the Lost Cause romantization of the war, popular artwork--prints and statues--remains focused squarely on it. Confederate generals are the rage (with Lee head and shoulders above all others). An especially popular motif combines Christian and Confederate themes: Lee and Jackson praying with a couple of kids on either side of them, or Lee reading the Bible to a child. The Confederate battle flag is a favorite image in the prints, and Bedford Forrest is depicted more often than one would suspect (given his unsavory reputation). Hollywood may feel uncomfortable in touting the Lost Cause (although Maxwell's aesthetically abysmal "Gods and Generals" is an exception). But given the popularity of Lost Cause-themed artwork, it's a safe bet that this memory filter is alive and well.

A fascinating discussion by one of the nation's most respected Civil War scholars. Readers interested in the Civil War in popular memory might also find David Sachsman's Memory and Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Cold Mountain (2007) and David Blight's Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2001) helpful. Gallagher's earlier books and essays on the Lost Cause are also invaluable.