Even my community college American history class in 2002 (just an hour south of Atlanta) was chock full of Lost Cause nonsense.
I didn’t even recognize it at the time since it was the same stuff my dad taught me. He was a really smart guy who read a lot of history and was particularly interested in the Civil War, so I didn’t have a lot of reason to question things until later when I learned what the Lost Cause actually was.
It was always tied up in so many family stories too, and the idea of those 'damn yankees and carpet baggers", it was a part of my identity and history. It was just all around me, like the air, and so it was weird and kinda hard to unlearn that stuff, but not unwelcome.
I think maybe folks raised outside the south don’t see all that stuff, how that culture permeates everything. Or maybe they think it’s just a bunch of stupid rednecks who’ve never picked up a book, I’m never quite sure 😅
At least the more modern textbooks I’ve seen do a much better job at telling the proper story!
Also a matter of how up-to-date your textbooks are, and when you grew up. It was definitely common in the Deep South as recently as the 90s.
Even my community college American history class in 2002 (just an hour south of Atlanta) was chock full of Lost Cause nonsense.
I didn’t even recognize it at the time since it was the same stuff my dad taught me. He was a really smart guy who read a lot of history and was particularly interested in the Civil War, so I didn’t have a lot of reason to question things until later when I learned what the Lost Cause actually was.
It was always tied up in so many family stories too, and the idea of those 'damn yankees and carpet baggers", it was a part of my identity and history. It was just all around me, like the air, and so it was weird and kinda hard to unlearn that stuff, but not unwelcome.
I think maybe folks raised outside the south don’t see all that stuff, how that culture permeates everything. Or maybe they think it’s just a bunch of stupid rednecks who’ve never picked up a book, I’m never quite sure 😅
At least the more modern textbooks I’ve seen do a much better job at telling the proper story!