The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020 reignited a passionate nationwide debate over Confederate memorials and flags as symbols of white supremacy in our public landscape. Controversies about Confederate monuments, however, have overshadowed more consequential battles over Civil War memory taking place in American politics, popular culture, and civil society today.
Integrating the voices of Civil War historians, public historians, and scholars of contemporary America, They Are Dead and Yet They Live explores the use (and abuse) of Civil War memory in the modern era, from the Civil War Centennial and the civil rights era through the political turmoil of the present day. Moving the conversation of Civil War memory beyond Confederate monuments to crucial debates about the Civil War’s usefulness as a frame for understanding America’s recent struggles, these essays show how Civil War memory is as politically urgent and socially relevant today as it was a half century ago.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Governor and the Palmetto Patriots
John M. Kinder and Jennifer M. Murray
I. Lost Causes
Chapter 1
To Understand Where You Are Going, Remember Where You Have Been: Reconstruction’s Reverberations in Twenty-first Century America
Brooks D. Simpson
Chapter 2
The Republican Party, the Lost Cause, and the Transformation of American Politics
Tim Galsworthy
Chapter 3
Racist Politics and Civil War Memory
Adam H. Domby
II. Reclamation Projects
Chapter 4
The Politics of Civil War Memory in America's Military: The Battle to Rename Nine U.S. Army Bases
Jennifer M. Murray
Chapter 5
Freedom on the Fringes: The Civil War and Civil Rights at Camp Nelson
Steven T. Phan
Chapter 6
Ghosts of Atchison: The Lynching of George Johnson
Joshua Wolf
III. Consuming Memory
Chapter 7
Confederates in the Record Cabinet: Civil War Memory and the Historical Turn in Modern Country Music
Joseph Thompson
Chapter 8
Love is a Battlefield: Civil War Memory in Modern Romance Novels
Sarah Handley Cousins
Chapter 9
Dixie Chic: Hoodies and Embodying Confederate Exceptionalism
Nicole Maurantonio
IV. Civil War Memory in the Age of Black Lives Matter
Chapter 10
“This battle was fought because Black Lives Matter”: How Black Lives are (or aren’t) remembered at Gettysburg
Scott Hancock
Chapter 11
The Black Confederate Myth and Civil War Memory in the Trump Era
Kevin M. Levin
V. The Next Civil War
Chapter 12
The Confederate Battle Flag’s Symbolic Shorthand: Appropriation, Dissemination and Proliferation by US-Based White Supremacists in 21st-Century America
Brett A. Barnett
Chapter 13
Dylann Roof’s Civil Wars
John M. Kinder
Epilogue
“Wow, That Was a Big Mistake”
Jennifer M. Murray and John M. Kinder
Timeline of Key Events from the Civil War Centennial to 2024
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