History Teaches Us to Hope: Reflections on the Civil War and Southern History

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University Press of Kentucky, 12.09.2010 - 416 Seiten
Before his death in 1870, Robert E. Lee penned a letter to Col. Charles Marshall in which he argued that we must cast our eyes backward in times of turmoil and change, concluding that Òit is history that teaches us to hope.Ó Charles Pierce Roland, one of the nationÕs most distinguished and respected historians, has done exactly that, devoting his career to examining the SouthÕs tumultuous path in the years preceding and following the Civil War. History Teaches Us to Hope: Reflections on the Civil War and Southern History is an unprecedented compilation of works by the man the volume editor John David Smith calls a Òdogged researcher, gifted stylist, and keen interpreter of historical questions.ÓThroughout his career, Roland has published groundbreaking books, including The Confederacy (1960), The Improbable Era: The South since World War II (1976), and An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War (1991). In addition, he has garnered acclaim for two biographical studies of Civil War leaders: Albert Sidney Johnston (1964), a life of the top field general in the Confederate army, and Reflections on Lee (1995), a revisionist assessment of a great but frequently misunderstood general. The first section of History Teaches Us to Hope, ÒThe Man, The Soldier, The Historian,Ó offers personal reflections by Roland and features his famous ÒGI CharlieÓ speech, ÒA Citizen Soldier Recalls World War II.Ó Civil WarÐrelated writings appear in the following two sections, which include RolandÕs theories on the true causes of the war and four previously unpublished articles on Civil War leadership. The final section brings together RolandÕs writings on the evolution of southern history and identity, outlining his views on the persistence of a distinct southern culture and his belief in its durability. History Teaches Us to Hope is essential reading for those who desire a complete understanding of the Civil War and southern history. It offers a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary historian.

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Ausgewählte Seiten

Inhalt

Introduction
1
In the Beginning
57
A Citizen Soldier Recalls World War II
75
In Retrospect
89
Why the War Came
93
Louisana and Secession
107
The Resort to Arms
117
A Slaveowners Defense of Slavery
133
Robert E Lee and the Leadership of Character
207
or Lee in Caricature
221
Lee and Jackson
235
The South Americas WillotheWisp Eden
253
The South of the Agrarians
269
Happy Chandler
285
Change and Tradition in Southern Society
303
The EverVanishing South
319

Louisiana Sugar Planters and the Civil War
147
Albert Sidney Johnston and the Defense of the Confederate West
163
The Generalship of Robert E Lee
175
Copyrights and Permissions
337
Index
339
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Beliebte Passagen

Seite 86 - The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo; No more on life's parade shall meet That brave and fallen few. On fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread, And glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead.
Seite 99 - Woe unto the world because of offences ; for it must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.
Seite 253 - For the kind spring which but salutes us here, Inhabits there and courts them all the year ; Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live, At once they promise what at once they give ; So sweet the air, so moderate the clime, None sickly lives or dies before his time ; Heaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst To show how all things were created first.
Seite 265 - Rollin G. Osterweis, Romanticism and Nationalism in the Old South.
Seite 99 - WHICH IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD MUST NEEDS COME BUT WHICH HAVING CONTINUED THROUGH HIS APPOINTED TIME HE NOW WILLS TO REMOVE AND THAT HE GIVES TO BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH THIS TERRIBLE WAR AS THE WOE DUE TO THOSE BY WHOM THE OFFENSE CAME SHALL WE DISCERN THEREIN ANY DEPARTURE FROM THOSE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES WHICH THE BELIEVERS IN A LIVING GOD ALWAYS ASCRIBE TO HIM.
Seite 122 - In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.
Seite 254 - When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon will under the fostering care of Government, we will no longer experience these evils. The farmer will find a ready market for his surplus produce ; and, what is almost of equal consequence, a certain and cheap supply of all his wants.
Seite 237 - If I were on my death-bed to-morrow," he said to General Preston, long before the breaking out of the war, "and the President of the United States should tell me that a great battle was to be fought for the liberty or slavery of the country, and asked my judgment as to the ability of a commander, I would say with my dying breath, 'Let it be Robert E. Lee.
Seite 215 - I will commence this holy day by writing to you. My heart is filled with gratitude to God for the unspeakable mercies with which He has blessed us in this day; for those He has granted us from the beginning of Life, and particularly for those he has vouchsafed us during the past year. What should have become of us without His crowning help and protection ? Oh ! if our people would only...
Seite 247 - Give him my affectionate regards, and tell him to make haste and get well and come back to me as soon as he can. He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.

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