!1: Now is the time Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War (Caravan Book) Order Today!
Nice Design by :
Over All Rating Reviews :
Great Deal :
$17.00
Date Created :
Nov 06, 2010 06:00:21
Over All Rating Reviews :
Great Deal :
$17.00
Date Created :
Nov 06, 2010 06:00:21
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.
!1: Best Buy Gary Gallagher sets out to question how and why the various justifications for the Civil War have come to dominate the popular conception of what this war was fought over as portrayed to the American public through modern film and popular art. Using a broad range of films since the 1980s and a solid base in Hollywood classics from the bygone era of Clark Gable, Gallagher concludes, that of the four major schools of thought, the Union Cause tradition has been left to the dusty archives for historians to find while the three remaining paradigms of Civil War thought have all been used with some critical effect by the popular historians of Hollywood. The world of modern art offers no solace to Gallagher in his quest for Union either it seems. Much like the film portrayals, the Union Cause seems to lack that certain panache that would lend itself to the canvas; however, one finds that the howling visage of Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (an obscure cavalry general during the war, but early member of the KKK after the war) and the "iconic" image of the St. Andrews Cross translate readily to profitable artwork.
In laying the groundwork for his arguments about film and popular art conceptions of this war, Gallagher does a fine job of explaining what each of the four traditions is and where they evolved from. The Lost Cause is the cause of the romanticized old South and their noble attempt at nation building. This idea seeks to highlight the constitutional high ground from which Confederates sought to act, mute the role of slavery in the formation of the Confederacy, emphasize the logistical advantages the Union had and shine a light on the hardship that Confederate citizens and soldiers alike voluntarily put themselves through in the name of Confederate patriotism. Gallagher does a strong job of hammering home how successful this tradition has been in shaping the history of this war.
Beginning with the Civil War generation, we see that the Lost Cause paradigm would be the one that would historically be the most powerful. Confederate generals turned writers, like Robert E. Lee and Jubal A. Early, sought to justify their own cause so they would not be the villains of history. How successful were they? Reflect on the Robert E. Lee for a moment. What are your immediate thoughts? Is he a villain, a traitor? Or is he a thoughtful, reflective gentleman of honor and chivalry? Gallagher's point is taken it would seem. One of the major focuses of the Lost Cause was to turn Lee and Stonewall Jackson into heroes, while vilifying men like Grant, Sherman and Sheridan. So too, the Western theater (the place where the South was humiliated from day one) would be forgotten, and all emphasis would be placed on the Eastern theater of operations where Confederate Armies held their own for much of the war. Gallagher is able to show how two of the other three traditions come along to attempt to counter the influence of the Lost Cause, but it was the Lost Cause that has always been successfully promoted and the Union Cause that has faded away.
The Union Cause tradition holds a special place for Gallagher even if it seems to have faded from the notice of the general American public. This tradition represents the noble if anachronistic goal of preserving the union. This idea lessons any role that manumission of the enslaved may have had in the War, and looks to develop a sense that the experiment of free people governing themselves through their own consent was at stake in this war. Should the Confederacy be able to break the Union, then the fate of all representative governments would be the same. Gallagher makes a salient point when he claims that the modern American would have trouble digesting the Union Cause on film. How does one translate the idea of Union to film? It is so natural to Americans today that they do not think about it, and trying to tie the Union Cause to the work our Founders in 1776 and 1789 may be even more difficult. This does belie the fact though that the Union Cause certainly was important to the Civil War generation itself. In 1865 Walt Whitman would write "From Paumanok Starting I Fly Like a Bird" in which Union Cause themes are clearly visible:
To Kanada till I absorb Kanada in myself, to Michigan then,
To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs, (they are
inimitable;)
Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs, to Missouri and Kansas and
Arkansas to sing theirs,
To Tennessee and Kentucky, to the Carolinas and Georgia to sing
theirs,
To Texas and so along up toward California, to roam accepted
everywhere;
Here, in just part of one stanza, Whitman manages to roam the entire breadth of America with an eye towards "Kanada" for good measure. Slave state, free state and border state are all included in what Whitman and Gallagher would consider the actual cause for the Civil War: Union. It was not only Whitman championing this cause. Lincoln's first inaugural, Daniel Webster's famous speech of 1850 and some of Herman Melville's works all do justice to the Lost Cause tradition, and are all shown in their proper light by Gallagher.
Equally important to the Union Cause's downfall in modern film, and the capitulation to Lost Cause themes has been Hollywood's treatment of the Union solider since the Vietnam War era. In film after film Gallagher shows how Hollywood has chosen to paint the Union solider as a racist, sexist, stupid and wantonly cruel animal with no regard for the human suffering they caused. Only in the films Gods and Generals and Glory were there any redeemable qualities to Billy Yank; however, it should be noted that it is only the black soldiers of the 54th that are worthy of respect in Glory. Clearly, men like Lee and Early who began the Lost Cause tradition would smile today if they could watch Hollywood's depiction of their foes.
Coming to some prominence in the modern film era, the Reconciliation Cause tradition can be called the capitulation of the North to the Lost Cause. This cause exalts the restored nation, extols the virtues of both sides, and mutes the roles of blacks in the Civil War. Perhaps the natural evolution and amalgamation of the Lost Cause and Union Cause traditions, this is clearly the most modern interpretation of the Civil War. Shown best in the related films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals this tradition would seem to show a victory for the Lost Cause. If the South is to be ultimately remembered as a place of chivalric generals, impassioned patriotic ladies and overwhelming odds, what does that say about the popular historiography of the Civil War? It should be noted that both of these films personifying the Reconciliation Cause tradition focus exclusively on the Eastern theater of operations. How different would the gallant Southern gentlemen be if a movie of the Vicksburg campaign was made?
Of the four major traditions, Gallagher shows how one has come to dominate the modern film industry as the Lost Cause had dominated until the modern era. Of course, this is the Emancipation Cause. With such films as Glory, Cold Mountain, Little Women, Pharaoh's Army and a number of others Gallagher shows how the Hollywood machine has either directly or indirectly accepted slavery as the motivating factor of the war in each film. Troubling to the discerning viewer though should be continued strength of Lost Cause themes even in these Emancipation Cause films. The continued hatred of Hollywood for any solider with white skin and blue uniform is a triumph for the Lost Cause that cannot be overlooked, and the homage continually paid to Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson subtly undermine any message of emancipation. The total dismissal of the Western theater as a venue from which to tell a Civil War story is another victory for the Lost Cause, and dismisses the scenes of the all of the Union's most important victories outside of Gettysburg and Appomattox.
If one finds themselves troubled by the popular film history of the civil war, one may not want to even look into the popular art of the civil war. In this venue Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jackson and Nathaniel Forrest have become gods, while U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, and Phil Sheridan are all but forgotten. It seems only thanks to Ken Burns' documentary series and the movie Gettysburg that the Union has a portrait subject worth depicting at all. That person, of course, is Josh Chamberlain who held the flank at Gettysburg (apparently the only Union victory of the war). With an overwhelming does of statistics and photos, Gallagher shows the utter dominance of the Lost Cause tradition in popular Civil War art that is just about incontrovertible. As troubling as the Lost Cause's dominance is in film, the more overtly racial twinge of the popular art should give people some pause. St. Andrews' Cross flags fly proud in this modern art (these flags were not nearly as prevalent in earlier Civil War art) in a reflection of the modern struggle over public displays of the Confederate flag, and even some displays of indifferent to happy slaves now appear in Southern art. For what it's worth, a niche market for the Buffalo Soldiers has always remained strong among current black officers and NCOs in the modern military, and paintings of Gettysburg and Irish Brigades have maintained some popularity as well, but nothing seems to touch the dominance Gallagher shows the Lost Cause paintings to have gained.
Gallagher's work is well done and well received by this reader, but it most likely lost on the public at large. As an academic text, its audience is not meant to be the general public per se, but clearly they represent the object of his variables. Does he strive too much to exhume the Union Cause from the dust bin of history? Probably so, but it is a noble cause. Given the way that Union soldiers are portrayed in film and popular art, it is also a sorely unheeded cause as well.
on Sale!
- This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Vintage Civil War Library)
- What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Vintage)
- Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South (American Ways Series)
- The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History
- Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
Recommend : ±1±: My Bag Store !: Flat Screen Tvs Order Today !# Smoke Shop Best Quality !#: Tera Patrick Right Now !: Swivel Living Room Chairs This Instant
