The Lost Cause Reconsidered Once More

[Draggingtree]

On a website devoted to publishing scholarly articles, I did recently did a search for “The Lost Cause” and unsurprisingly found a plethora of articles on that theme relating mostly to the aftermath of the American War of 1861-65. Also unsurprisingly, many of these apparently set about to examine the issue with a view toward debunking that effort as futile, backward, and so on.

 What occurred to me following this admittedly unscientific and non-comprehensive survey were three related observations. The first has to do with what we might call a natural human response to any defeat and the trauma and shame that go with it. The second relates to the motivation on the part of the South in electing to engage in that War. And the third pertains to the matter of the arbitration of right and wrong, truth and falsehood by either war or word.