Was the Confederacy doomed from the start in its struggle against thesuperior might of the Union? Did its forces fight heroically against all odds forthe cause of states' rights? In reality, these suggestions are an elaborate andintentional effort on the part of Southerners to rationalize the secession and thewar itself. Unfortunately, skillful propagandists have been so successful inpromoting this romanticized view that the Lost Cause has assumed a life of its own.Misrepresenting the war's true origins and its actual course, the myth of the LostCause distorts our national memory. In The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil WarHistory, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying ways inwhich it falsifies history -- creating a volume that makes a significantcontribution to Civil War historiography.
