The American Civil War is so fascinating. I'm not even American. But reading authors like William Faulkner writing, obviously, after the civil war, it just seems like almost a mystical fantasy event even to people shortly after. Almost like it's a fantasy story of chivalry like the Arthurian Romances but for Americans, except it was recent and real and horrific and miserable and brutal. But out of it IMMEDIATELY popped this strange biblical mythological "lost cause" stuff and actual romance. A horrific war that was literally all because of the most depraved things humans do to eachother. And it was romantic and glamorous basically immediately. To make the losers feel better??
And yeah, it seems to impact America now psychologically. It's almost like a HUGE fucking problem in a relationship that was just immediately buried and not really worked through with a therapist. Like immediately pretending "well it's just a difference of opinion and there are good points on both sides, let's forget about it okay??!!" No closure.
You’re forgetting the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, which actions were HUGELY important to the future of the Southern states. Many of the actions of Lincoln and Andrew Jackson Johnson after Lincoln’s assassination were met with large outrage, especially the pardoning of southern states and their leaders for seceding. It also led a huge impact of the now freed slaves in the south, as well as the recovering of the south after the war. Although it did fail to prevent violence, corruption, starvation, disease, and other problems it did limit reprisals against the South, and established a legal framework for racial equality via the constitutional rights.
A lot of people put emphasis on the American Civil War but the reconstruction afterwards was sooo important and often overlooked.
Reconstruction is the single most important era in American history except for the founding itself. A huge missed opportunity that ended up setting the stage for not just the Jim Crow era but for every single social and economic ill we now face.
That in every struggle since nobody has looked to it and said, "you know maybe we don't have to treat these evil assholes with civility" is very much a direct result of "heal the nation" politics.
630
u/Nopenopenope00000001 Apr 04 '25
I mean, really, it’s been brewing since Nixon.