
The False Cause
Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory
Adam H. Domby(Author)
University of Virginia Press
Published on 28. February 2020
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-8139-4376-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Lost Cause ideology that emerged after the Civil War and flourished in the early twentieth century sought to recast a struggle to perpetuate a slaveholding culture as a heroic defense of the South. As Adam Domby reveals in his new book, this was not only an insidious goal; it was founded on falsehoods. The False Cause focuses on North Carolina to examine the role of lies and exaggeration in the creation of the Lost Cause narrative. In the process the book shows how these lies have long obscured the past and been used to buttress white supremacy in ways that resonate to this day.
Domby explores how fabricated narratives about the war's cause, Reconstruction, and slavery-as expounded at monument dedications and political rallies-were crucial to Jim Crow. He questions the persistent myth of the Confederacy as one of history's greatest armies, revealing a convenient disregard of deserters, dissent, and Unionism, and exposes how pension fraud facilitated a myth of unwavering support of the Confederacy among nearly all white Southerners. Domby shows how the dubious concept of "black Confederates" was spun from a small number of elderly and indigent African American North Carolinians who got pensions by presenting themselves as "loyal slaves." The book concludes with a penetrating examination of how the Lost Cause narrative and the lies on which it is based continue to haunt the country today and still work to maintain racial inequality.
Domby explores how fabricated narratives about the war's cause, Reconstruction, and slavery-as expounded at monument dedications and political rallies-were crucial to Jim Crow. He questions the persistent myth of the Confederacy as one of history's greatest armies, revealing a convenient disregard of deserters, dissent, and Unionism, and exposes how pension fraud facilitated a myth of unwavering support of the Confederacy among nearly all white Southerners. Domby shows how the dubious concept of "black Confederates" was spun from a small number of elderly and indigent African American North Carolinians who got pensions by presenting themselves as "loyal slaves." The book concludes with a penetrating examination of how the Lost Cause narrative and the lies on which it is based continue to haunt the country today and still work to maintain racial inequality.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Charlottesville
United States
Illustrations
3 black & white illustrations, 1 table
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
515 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8139-4376-3 (9780813943763)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2020
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
from
€64.99
Available for download
Person
Adam H. Domby is Assistant Professor of History at the College of Charleston.