Race and Reunion
Subtitle: The Civil War in American Memory
By: David W. Blight.
Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 512
Subjects: Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Social aspects; War and society -- United States -- History; Memory -- Social aspects -- United States -- History; Reconciliation -- Social aspects -- United States -- History; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Influence; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Social aspects; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- African Americans; United States -- Race relations
Description: "No historical event has left as deep an imprint on America's collective memory as the Civil War. In the war's aftermath, Americans had to embrace and cast off a traumatic past. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting, and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and America's national reunion." "Race and Reunion is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War. Blight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice, Reconstruction, the romanticized South of literature, soldiers' reminiscences of battle, the idea of the Lost Cause, and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.