Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past

by Kevin M. Kruse

In 1866 Pollard, a native Virginian, wrote a tome he titled The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates. A “new” southern history immediately suggested that this was intended as a partisan assessment of the war even before the first volumes of history about the war were ever produced. Over the course of 752 pages, Pollard laid out a Confederate history of the war, as well as a narrative that proved useful to white southerners reeling from defeat and the devastation of their world. Not only did he coin the term Lost Cause, but he also provided former Confederates with a rhetorical balm to soothe their psychological wounds. In doing so, he helped to lay the foundation of a mythology that reassured them that their cause was just and their values were worth fighting for even in the face of a thoroughly crushing defeat.