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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (165963)	7/13/2011 6:12:24 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541701

as the US Civil War bred lasting southern Resentment, the rise of the Klan,and segregation, and political wars still being played out today. All because enough people believed the stereotypes put forth by some Minister's daughter (Harriet Beecher Stowe). Whereas many people feel that slavery would have collapsed of its own economic weight before 1900. Ok, the first 2 sentences is somewhat in line with what my grade school history book said circa 1967 or so. I asked my teacher about it, she said that historians didn't believe that anymore. The South had a big propaganda industry, which included numerous academics, putting out the line that they were deeply wronged by the civil war and its aftermath. The effects went all the way up, where, for example, Woodrow Wilson, allegedly the godfather of "liberal fascism", made "Birth of a Nation" required viewing at the White House. The truth about reconstruction was that it actually worked pretty well, but the rest US just ran out of steam after 12 years and let the South go back to being controlled by its traditional aristocracy, which found plenty of ways to put the ex-slaves back to their proper place in the world. As for slavery collapsing of its own accord, yes, that's an off spouted line from a certain school of politico-economists. They don't often say what would have happened to all the ex-slaves, though. I can't exactly imagine their lot being particularly better than it was in the post-reconstruction South, and that lot wasn't very good at all.

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (165963)	7/13/2011 7:17:57 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541701

You present that interpretation of the consequences of the civil war as if it's the only extant one. There are, of course, several, depending on a variety of viewpoints. The thesis of the one you advance is that the civil war was a mistake, slavery would have gone away regardless. Moreover it was the cause of southern resentment (why capitalize the "R"--that's interesting), the klan (which is usually capitalized, and of segregation. And, of yes, of the political wars being waged today. And it's all Harriet Beecher Stowe's fault If you wish to advance that different a theory, you best provide a source or three. That's about the wackiest I've ever seen. I think Win Smith has some historian credentials. Perhaps he wants to take this one on.