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The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory
Since the Civil War whites and blacks have struggled over the meanings and uses of the Southern past. Indeed, today’s controversies over flying the Confederate flag, renaming schools and streets, and commemorating the Civil War and the civil rights movement are only the latest examples of this ongoing divisive contest over issues of regional identity and heritage. The Southern Past argues that these battles are ultimately about who has the power to determine what we remember of the past, and whether that remembrance will honor all Southerners or only select groups.
For more than a century after the Civil War, elite white Southerners systematically refined a version of the past that sanctioned their racial privilege and power. In the process, they filled public spaces with museums and monuments that made their version of the past sacrosanct. Yet, even as segregation and racial discrimination worsened, blacks contested the white version of Southern history and demanded inclusion. Streets became sites for elaborate commemorations of emancipation and schools became centers for the study of black history. This counter-memory surged forth, and became a potent inspiration for the civil rights movement and the black struggle to share a common Southern past rather than a divided one.
W. Fitzhugh Brundage’s searing exploration of how those who have the political power to represent the past simultaneously shape the present and determine the future is a valuable lesson as we confront our national past to meet the challenge of current realities.
For more than a century after the Civil War, elite white Southerners systematically refined a version of the past that sanctioned their racial privilege and power. In the process, they filled public spaces with museums and monuments that made their version of the past sacrosanct. Yet, even as segregation and racial discrimination worsened, blacks contested the white version of Southern history and demanded inclusion. Streets became sites for elaborate commemorations of emancipation and schools became centers for the study of black history. This counter-memory surged forth, and became a potent inspiration for the civil rights movement and the black struggle to share a common Southern past rather than a divided one.
W. Fitzhugh Brundage’s searing exploration of how those who have the political power to represent the past simultaneously shape the present and determine the future is a valuable lesson as we confront our national past to meet the challenge of current realities.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 2, 2018
And the question remains: where do we go from here?
May 27, 2021
This is one of my favorite books. As a historian, I have used and abused my copy of this book and it's riddled with bookmarks and notes. I recommend this to anyone and everyone that will listen.
August 24, 2026
read excerpts from this years ago for a class and only now read it cover to cover. unfortunately brundage was entirely accurate in his speculation about the continuing entrenchment of partisanship in southern historical memory
October 20, 2019
Excellent, heavily skimmed, need to return to.
November 1, 2020
I used this book for an undergraduate seminar on historical controversies at our university. The book doesn’t directly talk about our university, but sets up a good working definition of the concept of public memory and the origins of Confederate statues and monuments in the US south.
December 31, 2009
The book discusses how race has influenced the remembrance of history. Very intriguing.
June 17, 2008
Read this for school, but it was really engaging.
December 5, 2008
Dense, but surprisingly good! I read this for my Intro to Public History class.
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October 7, 2012Reading for Historical Myth Class.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews