Vox: How Civil War History was Rewritten in the South

[Rocket Man]

Vox's youtube channel always hits it out of the park. Great insight into Southern history textbooks, Confederate monuments and the influence of civil war education.

Crazy how those completely distorted and inaccurate textbooks were used until the 70s...well actually not really crazy based on what we see today.

 

[DeusOcha]

Really good video and serves as a good explanation why "remembering our roots" is such a widespread argument despite being it baffling to those detached from the culture.

 

[Will The Thrill]

Wow that's a great video, I''ve never gotten info this in-depth about this stuff before. Really puts it into perspective how this stuff continues to this day.

 

[HadesHotgun]

I had several teachers in Palm Beach County Florida who taught us about the Noble Southerners and the War of northern aggression.

I even got marked down on an essay about the Civil War because I pointed out some of Grant's relative strengths over Lee. I was specifically using the documents the teacher provided but she added a note asserting that Lee was better.

 

[Deleted member 8741]

Grew up in the Deep South. Absolutely true.

So many people are somewhat well-intentioned but have been brainwashed into thinking that the Civil War was a battle with "both sides" having some validity. There was a lot around remembering our roots and celebrating our southern soldiers.

Moved out of the south, learned what a shit show that was. That said, I think it's important to remember how much it's just the water you swim in down there. Most people are not intentionally misinforming people - they truly think it's true.

 

[Abu]

Holy shit at that textbook

 

[Z-Beat]

Well first Robert E Lee discovered Kobik the Cosmic Cube...

In all seriousness yeah that's pretty insane, just inputting your own stuff like that.

 

[Icemonk191]

It's so crazy watching the video and seeing how effective these people were at rewriting history.

It makes me wonder in 30 years if they'll be trying to make trump look like the greatest president there was.

 

[Mr X]

"Both sides" ...Trump taking a page out of the confederacy's handbook.

Was born in raised in NOLA. Wasn't as strong of confederacy feel there as other parts of the south. Though I did go to a small private christian school through my middle school and high school years.

 

[Lonewulfeus]

I took a civil war and reconstruction class at a college in northern NJ but the professor was from the south and so we learned all about the War of Northern Aggression. It was interesting to see how it was framed from a different point of view but at the same time scary as it was mostly thinly veiled slave ownership excusing

 

[Rocket Man]

Grew up in the Deep South. Absolutely true.

So many people are somewhat well-intentioned but have been brainwashed into thinking that the Civil War was a battle with "both sides" having some validity. There was a lot around remembering our roots and celebrating our southern soldiers.

Moved out of the south, learned what a shit show that was. That said, I think it's important to remember how much it's just the water you swim in down there. Most people are not intentionally misinforming people - they truly think it's true.

Click to shrink...

Yup, the whole 'remember your roots' made this personal and allowed ignorance and misinformation to be passed down each generation. It's sad how easy it was to do too.

 

[Polymath]

Whilst watching that video I couldn't help but think the US is more like 2 separate countries partaking in an unhappy marriage.

 

[Kthulhu]

Glad I was born after this stopped, if it ever happened in my schools.

They never quite did slavery and the civil war justice, but I was taught that the election of Lincoln and slavery were what caused the civil war.

 

[ryseing]

I had to read the UDC book by Karen Cox for my senior seminar. Incredibly enlightening- I encourage anyone remotely interested in the topic to check it out.

 

[avaya]

The US has been paying for not properly dealing with the South for a long time. My mind was full of fuck as I watched that video. How could you let it get to that point?

 

[Deleted member 1067]

Yeah this is a pretty common thing in the US.

There's been a lot of good work by revisionists and unionist historians to try and dig through all the crap and present something coherent out of the civil war and reconstruction periods. Just as an example there's been quite a few good books released just on Grant that will totally change the way most look at him based on the traditional narrative.

 

[Deleted member 4274]

The fact that Texas recently tried this again is telling

 

[Darryl M R]

The history of white women being slick in the US.

It still amazes me that people will say "This is about respecting my heritage/history."

 

[Deleted member 1067]

The history of white women being slick in the US.

It still amazes me that people will say "This is about respecting my heritage/history."

Click to shrink...

I live in the south and I am utterly revolted by any confederate monuments or that damned flag. Put them in a museum and be done with them.

 

[negreenfield]

I came from Virginia (Reston area) to Atlanta in 7th grade, so I happened to get the subject of the Civil War twice. I was shocked to learn that apparently the Civil War wasn't about slavery, had nothing to do with it. I was like uh wtf is this crap... I was too new to the school to say anything but that was pretty wild. This was 1988/89.

 

[Polymath]

The fact that Texas recently tried this again is telling

Click to shrink...

I remember that article https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/05/mcgraw-hill-textbook-slaves-workers-texas

 

[Deleted member 1067]

I came from Virginia (Reston area) to Atlanta in 7th grade, so I happened to get the subject of the Civil War twice. I was shocked to learn that apparently the Civil War wasn't about slavery, had nothing to do with it. I was like uh wtf is this crap... I was too new to the school to say anything but that was pretty wild. This was 1988/89.

Click to shrink...

Yep, same way I was taught too. Until my junior year of hs when my retired army sergeant ap teacher took us to shop class and through threw the standard junior history book into a woodchipper I was thoroughly brainwashed by the classical narrative of the Lost Cause and all the disgusting rhetoric that goes with it.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

Even in the Midwest (Indiana) in the 1980s, we were fed a sympathetic view of the South and told that Lee and his soldiers were the superior fighting force, defeated only through the North's massive supply advantages.

I don't think there was a single black student in my school; certainly not in my grade.

 

[Tfritz]

When I was in school in rural Alabama, they taught us the Civil War was fought over the North not letting the South industrialize. On an unrelated note, they didn't spend much time teaching critical thinking skills.

When I was in University and needed a history credit, I took a class on the Civil War, and the professor was completely upfront about slavery being the root of it, and I hope that stuck for a lot of my peers.

 

[negreenfield]

That's what's crazy about it. In Virginia I don't remember there being any minority students, yet we learned the Civil War was about slavery, and here I move to Atlanta and it was a very mixed school and I'm learning that the Civil War isn't about slavery at all, it was an "economic" war that we'll conveniently leave out was about slavery.

 

[Nairume]

My hometown has a monument to a confederate general that only plays up his role in the confederacy and says nothing of how he turned hard after the war was over and spent the rest of his life fighting against everything the confederacy stood for. Which isn't to say he was a saint, but it is hilarious the town only memorialized him at his worst as if that was what was worth memorializing.

The greatest irony of that statue is that it isn't even in his image. It was actually just hastily made and modified from a Spanish American war statue because the local Daughters of the Confederacy just wanted to quickly and cheaply thrown down a statue to claim that space.

 

[Hippo_PRIME]

I went to school in a very "purple" state. Growing up, I lived and went to school in a conservative part of the state, so I heard the "Civil War was fought over economic reasons" argument.

High school AP US History, the teacher was pretty upfront that those economic reasons were the past and continued enslavement of blacks in America. Pretty eye-opening and shocking. Totally changed the way I viewed my education in the past and continuing today.

 

[just_myles]

Grew up in the Deep South. Absolutely true.

So many people are somewhat well-intentioned but have been brainwashed into thinking that the Civil War was a battle with "both sides" having some validity. There was a lot around remembering our roots and celebrating our southern soldiers.

Moved out of the south, learned what a shit show that was. That said, I think it's important to remember how much it's just the water you swim in down there. Most people are not intentionally misinforming people - they truly think it's true.

Click to shrink...

Well it's not surprising that they would teach kids that. Similar to indentured servitude being "at will" employment.

 

[TurokTTZ]

Well this explains a lot.
In retrospect I'm glad I learned my history online and speaking with very well learned elderly folk.

 

[Deleted member 268]

Evil fucking cunts.

This shit is infuriating.

 

[Wiibomb]

I'm not from US, but since the election of DT I have been following closely the news and articles of US because, even if I hate it, a lot of other countries follow what US tendencies are in politics. some politics in my country even dared to praise trump's campaign.

so I have some background of the civil war and how the south has been so... weird... talking about that matter.

this just made me realize that the biggest war that exists isn't in a battlefield or punching your enemy, its convincing the mass. A good media coverage or an effective propaganda can produce what the UDC did.

we all should be more careful about what the mass communications media says, because they have a huge impact on the general public. It also worries me the "fake media" movement of trump a lot, because its a way to rally people to not believe anything, not even facts. That hasn't hit countries like mine, but the trend will hit eventually.

 

[Truly Gargantuan]

Growing up in the south I was definitely taught the civil war was all about state's rights. It doesn't take much critical thinking to figure out otherwise, though.

 

[Rocket Man]

The lasting effects of this are so dangerous. Even worse is the more you try to educate the misinformed ones, they become more entrenched in what they believe.

I had to read the UDC book by Karen Cox for my senior seminar. Incredibly enlightening- I encourage anyone remotely interested in the topic to check it out.

Click to shrink...

Will definitely try to check that out. Some of the things written in those textbooks were wild.

 

[Rentahamster]

Good video. More people should know about this than already do.

 

[CallMeShaft]

I always just assumed that southern states would gloss over the civil war in schools, not have kids read blatant lies and books filled with deceit and propaganda.

Even when that shit stopped in the 70s, the parents and grandparents who live in states like Georgia have (I'm sure) played a large role in influencing younger generations on how they should view politics. It will be a long ass time before these influences finally have little to no affect on how future generations see the world and it's inhabitants.

 

[FiddyShadeJ]

Absolutely, I personally didn't experience being taught this bizarre revisionist history but know plenty of others who were brainwashed by it.

 

[Jakten]

Even when that shit stopped in the 70s, the parents and grandparents who live in states like Georgia have (I'm sure) played a large role in influencing younger generations on how they should view politics. It will be a long ass time before these influences finally have little to no affect on how future generations see the world and it's inhabitants.

Click to shrink...

I have a friend who lives in Georgia who was taught a lot of this junk in the 90's and is slowly realizing he's wrong but its annoying talking to him, I've almost stopped being friends with him a few times because he's deeply programmed with talking points. Politically he is the exact opposite but these lies seems to have really been drilled into him. I'm going to send this to him and I'm sure we will get into a massive argument again, it's just baffling.

 

[Leandras]

I'm not from the US but recently got into a discussion with my partner over why the civil war is so highly regarded by people from the south.

Deffinately gonna give this a watch when I get home tonight. Thanks

 

[Jom]

Ewww... Aaaaaand this is why I really can only visit a handful of states in my own country.

 

[HadesHotgun]

It is worth noting that this is not at all confined to the South.

I currently live just outside Portland and on my daily commute to Washington state there is a Jefferson Davis Memorial Park. My wife read that it is getting moved to private property, but that is definitely not the kind of thing I had expected to see that far north and west. Then again, Oregon itself is pretty much a shining example of how the Confederate/White Supremacist movement has kept itself ingrained in to the fabric of America.

 

[Mike Double U]

"The enslaved people were happy." -- WHEW.

It's just crazy to me on how many Confederate statues and monuments there seem to be down south. I feel like there's not as many statues (statues in general, not Confederate specific ones) in Michigan. There may be less or maybe there's even more, either way, it's not fair to compare the two because I have spent so little time down south.

But there's no denying that The United Daughters of the Confederacy has completely indoctrinated the minds of a large percentage of the United States -- even before all of the technological advances in communications that we're used to today. That's just so surprising how they've accomplished what they accomplished and how much of a factor their brainwashing has still today.

 

[Paganmoon]

This if anything is really puts into question the idiom "History is written by the victors". Video made me so interested about how that idiom is viewed in the history scholar community, and google brought me to this blog by a history major:
https://pastexplore.wordpress.com/2...l-thinking-history-is-written-by-the-victors/
It also goes into the Lost Cause "interpretation".

Question is, how do you combat this, after it's been ingrained in society and the southern culture for so long?

 

[Rocket Man]

This if anything is really puts into question the idiom "History is written by the victors". Video made me so interested about how that idiom is viewed in the history scholar community, and google brought me to this blog by a history major:
https://pastexplore.wordpress.com/2...l-thinking-history-is-written-by-the-victors/
It also goes into the Lost Cause "interpretation".

Question is, how do you combat this, after it's been ingrained in society and the southern culture for so long?

Click to shrink...

Education (critical thinking, history, teaching perspective), combating fake news etc. Im hopeful that with new generation and maturation of social media, acceptance of stuff like this will become greatly diminished.