The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader

The "Great Truth" about the "Lost Cause"

By: James W. Loewen, Edward H. Sebesta

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Most Americans hold basic misconceptions about the Confederacy, the Civil War, and the actions of subsequent neo-Confederates. For example, two thirds of Americans - including most history teachers - think the Confederate States seceded for "states' rights". This error persists because most have never read the key documents about the Confederacy.

These documents have always been there. When South Carolina seceded, it published the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union". The document actually opposes states' rights. Its authors argue that Northern states were ignoring the rights of slave owners as identified by Congress and in the Constitution. Similarly, Mississippi's "Declaration of the Immediate Causes" says, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery - the greatest material interest of the world."

The 150th anniversary of secession and Civil War provides a moment for all Americans to hear these documents, properly set in context by award-winning sociologist and historian James W. Loewen and coeditor Edward H. Sebesta to put in perspective the mythology of the Old South.

©2010 University Press of Mississippi (P)2019 Tantor

Valuable but flawed

Overall, this is a very valuable book, and one that should be read by anyone who still believes that the Civil War was caused by anything other than slavery and racism. these documents make very difficult reading and listening. however, all too predictably, the author's try to claim that white supremacists gravitated from the Democratic Party of the Jim Crow era into the Republican Party, although they graciouslyadmit that not all conservative Republicans are racists. In order to buttress this questionable claim, the author's invoke the names of Thad Cochran Trent Lott Dick Army and Sonny Perdue, but they somehow managed to forget about Senator Robert Byrd, former Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, and the very man who shocked national audiences with his unapologetic use of a racial slur on a Sunday talk show interview. This tendentious claim mars this work but does not negate its value. Overall, I can still with clear conscience recommend this book.

A must read!

informative and great book. Any civil war enthusiast or history student will love this book. It shines the light on the historical proof of white supremacist agendas and goals by the Confederate States of America, post reconstruction period and the Lost cause myth.

a historical must read

the authors do an excellent job of using actual historic documents to methodically chip away the white wash that has been layered over American history since the Civil War. As the authors note, we need to confront the truth of our past in order to progress into a brighter future.

If there ever was a such thing as “white-washing history.”…

States rights? Omg, this book should be required reading for all Americans. Especially in the south. I mean the audacity of these people! Every street and darn near every city in the secessionist states is named after some racist treasonous a-hole! And the lies! Omg! And today they want to right laws to block teaching critical race theory in public schools! It should be required before you leave primary school! Please read or in my case listen to this book. It’s a game changer.