The Myth of the Lost Cause

Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won

By: Edward H. Bonekemper III

Narrated by: C.J. McAllister

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The former Confederate states have continually mythologized the South's defeat to the North, depicting the Civil War as unnecessary, or as a fight over states' Constitutional rights, or as a David v. Goliath struggle in which the North waged "total war" over an underdog South. In The Myth of the Lost Cause, historian Edward Bonekemper deconstructs this multi-faceted myth, revealing the truth about the war that nearly tore the nation apart 150 years ago.

©2015 Edward H. Bonekemper III (P)2016 Regnery Publishing

Excellent

The authors thorough debunking of the "Myth" is good. But the discussions of Lee and Grant really added to my understanding of the War. By the end he has convincingly made the dual cases that Grant, not Lee, was by far the better general and that Lee indeed may have done more harm than good to the Lost Cause. The discussion of Vicksburg alone was worth the read. Highly recommend this book.

Wow!

This book uses data and original documents to debunk the common misconceptions surrounding this terrible conflict. Apropos for today's charged political climate.

Powerful, honest, thorough and compelling.

If you have been taught that the Civil War was not about slavery, that Robert E Lee what is a great human being in general, that Ulysses S Grant was a butcher, or that slavery was not so bad, this book will help you escape the bewitchment.

Eye opening.

The book was very factual, but I feel that he could have offered more of the South's perspective. The bullet point facts, while often dry, are very eye-opening.

The War of Northern Aggression!

A book about the Civil War from a different point of view.



"This book was provided free for an unbiased review"

Fascinating and well documented

This book should be mandatory reading in every high school in America. very well done

Somebody forgot to tell Lincoln the war was about

Somebody forgot to tell Lincoln the war was about ending slavery.

In August 1862, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune wrote an editorial criticizing Lincoln, questioning the president's resolve in ending slavery. The column titled, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions” accused Lincoln of being “strangely and disastrously remiss” in his efforts to end slavery. [1]

President Lincoln responded to Greeley via the New York Times on August 22, 1862.

"As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave anyone in doubt. ..I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save Slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."[2]

Although Lincoln apparently abhorred slavery, in his own words he makes it clear his goal was to preserve the Union at any cost, regardless of the slavery issue. It just so happened that abolishing slavery was part of the spoils of war in saving the Union.

1. Greeley, Horace. n.d. “Horace Greeley's 'Prayer of Twenty Millions,' Front Page.” NewseumED. Accessed September 5, 2018. https://newseumed.org/artifact/the-new-york-tribune-aug-20-1862-page-1-2/.

2. Lincoln, Abraham. 1862. “A LETTER FROM PRESIDENT LINCOLN.; Reply to Horace Greeley. Slavery and the Union The Restoration of the Union the Paramount Object.” The New York Times. The New York Times. August 24, 1862. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/24/archives/a-letter-from-president-lincoln-reply-to-horace-greeley-slavery-and.html.

Excellent Listen!!

Really enjoyed the “just the facts” story of the Civil War. Clean and easy listen. I slowed down the narration so I could take in the information and understand the outcomes. Highly recommend!

well written, good flow

I think the reader was an automation which made it a bit bland at times. But the writing was so good I kept listening.

Fact filled, but a bit dry and academic

I am NOT a historian or an expert in this period by any means, but the case laid out here by Bonekemper is based on lots of original documentation and comes across as quite convincing. I'm quite glad I listened to it and I do recommend it.

I do want to be realistic, though. I'm also a professor (though in an entirely different subject), and this sounds/read more like a dissertation than it sounds like a. popular literature non-fiction read. You can hear all the subheads and parallel structure coming across, along with the content. That style might make it seem like a drier-than-necessary read for some. I wouldn't want every book I listened to or read to have this style, but it is fine with me, and it's only a 9 hour listen, not some giant 40 hour tome. The reader conforms to this style, rather than trying to inject any extra "story" through intonation or cadence.

The content here is great. In this era of "fake news," it is interesting to hear such a thorough debunking. I grew up in CA, hardly "the south," yet I recognize elements of the Lost Cause and Lee hagiography from my own public education. Although on one level, the "why" of this mythmaking is obvious, I might have enjoyed hearing the authors thoughts a bit more extensively on this. I presume he wanted to keep it to a pretty objective text, and he focuses on very straightforward evidence and analysis.