Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause, and the Emergence of the New South

by Gaines Foster • 1987

Through an examination of memoirs, personal papers, and postwar Confederate rituals, this book explores how white southerners interpreted the Civil War, accepted defeat, and readily embraced reunion and a New South. It reveals that while the Lost Cause was a central force in shaping late 19th-century southern culture, the legacy of defeat ultimately had little impact on southern behavior.