The Long Shadow of the Civil War

The recent controversy surrounding Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell when he issued a proclamation in honor of Confederate History Month that did not include a reference to slavery — an unforgivable omission — the fact that the Civil War is still a significant part of American history cannot be denied and indeed it still lives with us!

Anyway, this led me to a book I received recently The Long Shadow of the Civil War Southern Dissent and Its Legacies, By Victoria E. Bynum.

In the Introduction of the book Bynum quickly points out the focus of her book and the “three central questions” that are addressed:

1) How prevalent was support for the Union among ordinary Southerners, and how was it expressed?
2) How did Southern Unionists and freedpeople experience the Union’s victory and the emancipation of the slaves during the era of Reconstruction and beyond?
3) What were the legacies of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the South’s White Supremacists counterrevolution in regard to race, class, and gender relations and New South politics?

Which are very important questions and still very relevant. The shock waves of the Civil War are still felt today. The economic and social conditions of Black Americans was impacted by the failure of Reconstruction, the legacy of Jim Crow, and the dependency created by the White guilt welfare state of the Johnson Administration’s “Great Society” (and beyond) a tragedy that increased the number of single mother households that devastated blacks for generations and sentenced so many single mother black families to poverty.

Anyway, a great read and a solid study, and more importantly a timely one that relates to the continued reflection on the meaning of the American Civil War.