White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History

by Ann Bausum

This examination of racism in America by award-winning historian Ann Bausum deconstructs the warped history of the Civil War for teen readers.

This is not your average U.S. history book.

After the Civil War, the Confederates may have laid down their arms, but they were far from accepting defeat. By warping the narrative around what really happened during and after the Civil War, they created an alternate history now known as the Lost Cause. These lies still manifest today through criticism of Critical Race Theory, book banning, unequal funding for education, and more.

This book sets the record straight and explains the true history of the Civil War, and its complex and far-reaching aftermath.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Historical, Southern, Civil War, American History

358 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 12, 2025

About the author

Ann Bausum writes about history for readers of all ages from her home in southern Wisconsin. Her works often focus on under-told stories from the past, and she frequently explores issues of social justice.

Her newest title, The March Against Fear (National Geographic: 2017), is her third work to examine the civil rights movement in the American South. In the case of these and other books, Bausum strives to bring the nation’s social justice history to life in ways that empower and inspire readers young and old alike. Her previous title, Stonewall (Viking: 2015), is among the first nonfiction books to introduce teens to gay rights history. Previous works have explored voting rights, immigration, and free speech, among other topics.

The almost-forgotten story of Stubby lured Bausum away from social justice history temporarily. She wrote twin titles about the stray dog smuggled to Europe during World War I who returned to a hero’s welcome. Both books were published in 2014 by National Geographic: Sergeant Stubby (for adult readers) and Stubby the War Dog (for children).

In the spring of 2017, the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C., will honor the body of Bausum’s work by presenting her with its venerable Nonfiction Award. This award recognizes the consistent commendation earned by her individual titles through the years. Bausum’s books have appeared consistently on lists of recommended and notable titles and have earned numerous literary awards including a Sibert Honor Award, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, the Carter G. Woodson Award (on two occasions), and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award. In 2015, she was named the year’s Notable Wisconsin Children’s Author by the Wisconsin Library Association.

You may follow Bausum on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AnnBausum) and Twitter (@AnnBausum) or visit her online at www.AnnBausum.com

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up

📱Thank you NetGalley for the ARC e-book of White Lies. This book was fantastic and I couldn’t keep myself from info-dumping the facts I learned to everyone I know. This book is geared towards teenagers and young adults to absorb an accessible history of the civil war that is a strong departure from most history textbooks in school.

First of all, the author is a white woman who grew up in Virginia but has since moved up north. The most fascinating part of the book (in my opinion) is she grew up learning the white lies of the civil war in her history textbooks in the 60s and 70s. She was literally brainwashed on confederate propaganda as a child and had to unlearn the history as an adult. I find this aspect of the book so profound because it shows that people can change and unlearn white supremacy viewpoints. She wrote this book as an effort to help people like herself do the work of unlearning harmful lies.

Secondly, although I knew a correct history of the civil war (I grew up on textbooks in the 90s in the north that didn’t whitewash the civil war or the horrors of slavery), I had no idea the extent of the propaganda spread throughout the south to whitewash the war and rewrite the narrative as pro-confederate. I knew about the Daughters of the Confederacy and how they built monuments to confederate soldiers but I had no idea how deep they went. They essentially created a brainwashing children’s club to teach the white supremacist lies to young children (in a similar way to Hitler Youth) and they rewrote history textbooks and put them in southern classrooms that lasted all the way until the early 1970s. These textbooks were filled with lies and explicitly white supremacist.

Thirdly, I had no idea how many U.S. presidents decided to honor Confederate soldiers. Like what the heck? Why would a northern U.S. president decide to honor the graves of confederate soldiers? Why did we not treat the confederate soldiers like the traitors they were? It’s wild to me how many presidents succumbed to the white lies the south worked so hard to spread.

This book is easy to read and thorough. It walks through over 20 “white lies” that the south perpetuated for over a century and it tells the true history of what really happened - from before the war, to the war, to reconstruction, and beyond. I highly recommend this book to all ages. Maybe 8th grade and above? I’m not a teacher but I feel like an 8th grader should be able to understand this history and have the reading comprehension for a book of this caliber.

[Brigette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a book that you wish everyone else would take the time to read as well - “White Lies” is one of those books (at least to have white people read). It is supremely researched with hundreds and hundreds of citations and references.

This is Civil War history designed for teen readers, and I appreciated the notes in the beginning about terminology and the changes in words and their meaning. The author prepares us with a general understanding and invites us to use the updated terms as well.

I grew up in the north around monuments and memorials, however the location recognized both Confederate and US soldiers. Now I realize even more deeply how flawed those commemorations were and still are. I also learned a great deal. For example, Robert E Lee received enslaved people from his father in law: Lee was supposed to free them but was given 5 years to do so. Lee worked them out to other places to earn money. Lee was not a loving caregiver to his enslaved, and tried via the courts to keep the enslaved for longer than 5 years (for which he luckily lost).

Many things today can be traced to the Civil War and the tenants of the Lost Cause. Hate and Trump and Congress and the Supreme Court and literally everything we are dealing with now is laid out in this book, this is how we are here.

[Rachel Teut · Rating 5 out of 5]

“That’s a problem because when the facts get lost, history gets lost. And a nation that loses its history is a nation that has lost its ability to thrive. Its citizens lack the experience, wisdom and unity to acknowledge their country’s collective mistakes and to learn from them together. Instead of growing stronger, they remain diminished, stuck on repeat.”

This was just one of the quotes that stuck out to me when reading Basum’s book. Basum does a wonderful job of helping the reader navigate through and come to an understanding of the myths and lies that make up the Lost Cause. I was personally already familiar with the South’s attempts to rewrite history after the Civil War, but I feel it’s an area where so many people still believe the lies. Therefore I am always happy to see more resources published to help combat the narrative that has been taught and passed down for so long. For those who have been taught the Lost Cause lies as truth, it’s okay to admit it was wrong. It’s okay to say our country messed up. That’s what our country, specifically the South should have done from the get go. Instead here we are over a hundred years later with a history that’s believed by so many that is based mostly on lies. Lies that have hurt and destroyed many people in the process. We have to do better. We need to learn from our country’s past (our truthful and messy past) and ensure that it’s not repeated. As a fourth grade teacher I do my best to make sure I’m doing my part to stop this cycle.

I’ll finish with another quote from the book that stood out. “Until we break this cycle, until accuracy replaces misinformation, we will struggle. As long as people in power can use lies to sow division, we will be held back. But when we reject the lies and embrace the facts of our national story-both its moments of shame and those of majesty-we create the potential to flourish.”

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This highly readable and relatable history book explores how the mythology of the South’s “Lost Cause,” which recasts the Confederate rebels as patriots and heroes, eclipsed the actual story of the historical events that led up to and propelled the Civil War to its conclusion and aftermath and became the dominant perspective—despite its foundations in fiction and face-saving revisionism.

Chapters in this thoroughly researched history (the notes, bibliography, timeline are exacting) are accompanied by what Bausum labels the twenty foundational lies told by white supremacists that undergird the romanticized Lost Cause, e.g., the Confederate flag is a symbol of southern honor, slavery benefited both the enslaver and those he enslaved, or the Civil War was only about states’ rights, not slavery.

Bausum dispassionately highlights how these lies wormed their way into movies and popular literature, academia and the military, and were codified in legislation (Jim Crow laws in particular, but also with regard to voting, which persists to this day) in order to whitewash the brutality and cruelty of slavery and allow Southerners who clung to this morally-suspect way of life to save face in the wake of their crushing defeat by the Army of the Potomac. And all of this twisting of the truth seemed to allow Southerners to insist that, even though may have been defeated on the battlefield, they held the moral high ground, setting the stage for the ongoing systemic oppression of Black Americans by an unapologetically racist society.

I just hope that in the current political climate this important book still gets it due attention. Should be required reading.

Thanks to NetGalley, Roaring Brook Press, and Ms. Bausum for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

[Read-n-Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well it’s full of the truth buttttt towards the end veered off somewhat in blaming a certain president for being racially biased and I don’t believe that is true. But most of this is historically true. Most doesn’t know this truth and are still believing the lies, but This is a true account of how the lies came about and were spread.

[CrabbyPatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very difficult to read. Not the book itself, but the tale it tells. Written for a middle-school audience, the author is very clear in laying out the ways an alternate history was created and propagated. Even the way we think about the Civil War is shaded by the influence of the mythical "Lost Cause." As the author notes:

Ideally, history and memories coexist harmoniously, but that wasn't the case when it came to the history of the South. There the false narrative of the Lost Cause began to overpower the facts of the historical record until it effectively replaced them. This racially narrative worked on two levels. Not only did it suggest what people should remember. It also signaled what they should forget.

Ann Bausum covers the Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, the Daughters of the Confederacy (who spent the modern equivalent of millions of dollars on statutes of Confederate generals that dot the United States and established The Children of the Confederacy to teach the Lost Cause philosophy), the romanticized fiction of an honorable Ku Klux Klan (whose first leader was Nathan Bedford Forrest) and the concerted effort to allow Confederate dead to be buried in Arlington Cemetery.

And later on, Hollywood gets into the picture with The Birth of a Nation (1915), Gone with the Wind (1939) and Song of the South (1946). It's all a frankly terrifying tale of propaganda masquerading as history. And now in the shadows of Charlottesville and George Floyd, we still find ourselves fighting the Lost Cause yet determined not to give up. As the author ends this book:

May we grow stronger and create a better nation by exploring this ground together.

I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[libreroaming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I received a free ebook galley from NetGalley in return for my honest review. The review is reflected on the galley copy and some issues may be resolved with a printed version.

"White Lies" presents an historical insight to the ways in which Confederacy sympathizers lessened or outright propagandized the motives behind the Civil War, and how those falsehoods continue to reflect in our current society's view even to this day. Bausum takes on a weighty topic, one that is still controversial in many places, and presents a lot of evidence where Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee or Alexander H. Stephens vocally say the war was fought over slavery. Then goes on to tackle how Daughters of the Confederacy and Confederate Veterans admit their goals is to present the South and enslavers as righteous or victims themselves.

As this is an uncorrected galley, I hope the majority of my criticisms will be fixed in printing. The biggest drawback being the way the information is divided. Twenty lies are presented, but some of them could honestly be seen as variations of the same thing, such as "#8: Whites are naturally superior to Blacks" and "#16 Whites are still superior to Blacks" feels redundant. I understand the aim was to differentiate between the racism of the time in the 1860s compared to the racism of the 1960s, but it could be stated in a better way. The same criticism can as "#6 The South's Defeat had been inevitable" as the main point and "#9 Lee's Loss at Gettysburg wasn't his fault" as a specific subsection of the former.

Another, yet smaller, contention I have is with the author's decision to remove the word "plantation" as a description for places where enslaved Blacks labored. Bausum contends that the word presents "a nostalgic euphemism for places of forced labor; its continued use helps to mask the horror of these worksites" but I feel that taking more effort in describing the conditions in which slaves were forced to endure in plantations would more than adequately disabuse readers of those notions. And there is a wealth of primary sources where plantation owners admit their need for slaves because Blacks were suited to such horrible conditions, which would both prove the point that slavery was in their best economic interest and they were aware these conditions were so unpalatable they tried eugenic rationalization to justify it. In a book that takes a critical eye at antebellum South propaganda, it would only strengthen the argument to use their words in conjunction with the term. Finally, many Black criticism circles have reclaimed/adopted the term "plantation politics" to explain certain mechanisms of white slavery, so it would be in line with such discussions.

Likewise, the discussion of the statues is a wonderful through line of the book, but I hope it is formatted as panels on the side of the main text and with pictures of the statues would definitely increase readability. I also hope that the formatting would put the lies in the front end of the chapters, where many cases it felt like the theme of what the chapter was about was half of what the current lie was stating and half finishing up the previous thoughts of the earlier chapter. Again, this is something easily fixed with better editing for printing.

As for the positives, the book is very well researched. I particularly found the later parts about post-Civil War groups continuing "the Lost Cause" to be the most interesting. Adult books, such as Erik Larsson's "The Demon of Unrest" go more in depth about the mindset of contemporary voices in the Civil War, but the later ones during Reconstruction through the Civil Rights movement are underrepresented, especially in Young Adult non-fiction. If anything, I hoped that Basaum would use more specific language in detailing with Jim Crow laws, because she was very thorough in mentioning how Louisana's new voting law made 80,000 Whites ineligible to vote along with the intended 129,000 Black voters, but didn't go into the specifics of how the laws were applied. Oftentimes the strongest points were made when Basaum let the words of Lost Cause zealots speak, such as Mildred Lewis Rutherford, who was a true piece of work (I say in a derogatory manner). I also think finishing on Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again" was the perfect ending note to the book. Although the afterword with Basaum's personal interest in the topic was also worth reading.

Overall, this is a strong book that amply presents its case well. I hope the major issues of the formatting and ways that the ideas are presented are fixed when the book is published, otherwise I do think the current method in which I read it presented a great disservice to the thoughts contained inside.

[Kate McMurray]

I picked this up at the library, and while I think there is a lot of good and interesting information in the book, I do not think I am the target audience for it.

It's basically Lost Cause 101. Bausum's bio also says she's a children's book author primarily, and you can feel that in the tone of this book. It feels targeted at an audience that doesn't have much of a background in Civil War history, so if that's you, it might be a worthwhile read.

I did learn some things I didn't know. One thing that really struck me is that, as the United Daughters of the Confederacy were starting to rewrite the history books used in schools in the South, there was also a broader movement to make American history curriculum about inspiring stories instead of just names and dates, and history was for sure still taught this way when I was growing up in the '80s and '90s. I understand the impulse, but we're teaching kids an American mythos instead of accurate history, and frankly, the real history is more interesting (and inclusive).

Thus we have the Lost Cause—a largely fabricated alternate history of the Confederacy in which slavery wasn't so bad, the war was about states rights and the economy, and Confederate veterans were not rebels or traitors but war heroes—that is so pervasive and insidious that it still pops up in classrooms (and in the Ken Burns Civil War doc).

But Bausum also quotes Tony Horwitz quite a bit, which served to remind me that a better book on the Lost Cause, especially if you already have some background in this history, is Horwitz's brilliant Confederates in the Attic.

[Alicia Guzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you grow up learning that the War of Rebellion, otherwise known as the Civil War, was a fought over states rights? Then I urge you to pick up this book.

White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History is a history book aimed towards young adults that covers the War of Rebellion and the Reconstruction Era while exposing the lies and whitewashing that has happened.

There is so much that I learned! This should be required reading.


Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Roaring Brook Press for an advanced reader's copy of White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me so long to get through, not because it is bad, but because it is depressing. It's depressing how the propaganda spread and it's depressing that it it still happening. A lot of our current history is tied up in this rewrite of history that was disseminated throughout decades. I grew up learning some of these Lost Cause myths and I'm happy to have corrected that. Knowing our history - the good and the bad - only helps. As this book quotes from Maya Angelou, "I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going."

A very important and great addition to young adult nonfiction.

[Danielle Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to see how calculated propaganda attempts to rewrite history, read this book. I grew up in the south and have heard, and even believed when I was younger, some of these lies surrounding The War of Rebellion (aka The Civil War). This book expertly unravels those deceptions, provides accurate history, and shows how easy it is for people to twist narratives to suit their own position. Two thumbs up - a must read.

[Sarah Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book sets the record straight. It is accessible to middle grades, young adult, and adult readers. The facts are cited and plentiful. There is always more to learn about the history of this country, especially given the current state of things. I highly recommend this one for classroom libraries. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was curious about this work because I remember when the 2015 Charleston shooting by Dylann Roof happened, and all the discussion about Confederate memorials and statutes in 2017/2020. I appreciated how the author shared how this was her history too - how she (a White woman) was taught lies growing up in the South because of family ties, regional societal norms, and how those involved in government and school administration allowed the history texts to be published with inaccuracies and with only one viewpoint. I appreciated understanding that she unlearned that information over time and made efforts to educate herself based on a broader view of history (not just the White Southern pro-Confederacy male version). 

Story: We see 1) how the South was in the antebellum period and into the war period; 2) how the Lost Cause continued in the post-war era/Reconstruction; 3) how different organizations, individuals, media, and monuments contributed to the continuation of the Lost Cause; 4) how educators/historians impacted how history was told to children in America in terms of education, and 5) how America to this day deals with Lost Cause ideology and racism post-2015 (2017, 2020, and onwards - Confederate monument removal). I personally feel like I learned a ton of new things! For the first time, I learned about Joel Chandler Harris/Uncle Remus (plantation fiction of White men telling Black slave stories), how monuments were planned/made/ordered/celebrated, and how presidents backed the Lost Cause's ideology whether they meant to at first or not (Taft, Wilson). I also learned how Julian Harris/Julia Harris's journalism helped discredit the KKK and they received a Pulitzer Prize in 1926, that there was a United Daughters of the Confederacy Catechism for Children/Children of the Confederacy organization, and how White history professors changed history in the stories they told (Dunning), though there were some White history professors that fought that (William E. Dodd, John Spencer Bassett, Enoch M Banks). I appreciated the in-depth exploration of how Lost Cause propaganda made it into school systems across America as teachers/school admin/publishers/parents ensured that school textbooks were pro-Confederacy and talked about slavery as though it was beneficial to the slaves. I didn't realize there were multiple copies of textbooks printed because of the South's strict standards for how history was displayed, and how some publishers just gave up and published one copy that had the South's view to satisfy the South's strict standards, allowing that text to reach children all over America. I also was surprised to learn more about Du Bois's impact and how he stood up to read his research paper on Reconstruction disputing the claims of White historians - bold moves!! I appreciated the book's discussion on how film media could be used as propaganda for the Lost Cause, especially with The Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, and Song of the South. I had NO idea that Song of the South was a Disney movie (zip-a-dee-doo-dah and Splash Mountain comes from that?!?!) and of its more sinister origins. Lie #20 stood out to me ("We erase history when we remove symbols of the Confederacy") in distinguishing between history and heritage ("History is the record of actual events; heritage is the collective memory an individual or group shares with its past. The latter may or may not be factually accurate.") I loved how the author spent time briefly exploring how Germany dealt with the Holocaust - that was something I was interested in studying as a historian myself, because I think we can learn some lessons from Germany's example of how they as a nation discuss and remember the Holocaust. Will look into Hatewatch and the link between White supremacy and hate groups. 
 
Voice:  The voice is academic with clear, simple sentences. The author uses simple sentences at the end of sections to punctuate the gravity of some of the historical events or figures' thoughts. I think the length of some chapters without clear topic breaks would make it hard for a teen to keep with it if they weren't really into the subject matter. This is definitely not a book to read all in one sitting - it's best to sit with and absorb a bit over time. If I didn't do that, I would have burned out very quickly here.
 
Style: I liked how there was a note about terminology/language at the beginning of the book, where the author describes her choice in words "enslaved/the enslavers" rather than "slaves/slave owners" and such. It teaches readers to think critically about what their language promotes and how their language may affect others.
 
Setting:  America, especially in the South, from 1700s to 2025. I enjoyed reading this book so close to its publication - it hits home a lot more when you are reminded just how much America still struggles with racism and with those supporting the Lost Cause and White nationalism even at the close of 2024 into the current year.
 
Accuracy:  The amount of sources used in the source notes and bibliography is...a lot. Props. It's impressive! I was thankful to see that the author pulled for lots of sources to create this work. So well-researched. That's my main highlight and praise for this work!
 
Characters: There are a lot of different characters due to the wide timeframe this work spans (1700s to 2025, I mean, that's a lot!!), but I liked how the start of each section had some images of main players for those sections. The sheer volume of the work did have me get a bit tired at times, and I had to take breaks to refresh. I appreciated learning about some men I had never heard about who played major roles in Confederate propaganda and on the Confederate side of the rebellion, as well as learning about what men I have been taught about (US presidents, for example) decided to do - in some cases, even promoting the Lost Cause.
 
Theme: Know your nation's history and learn from it in order to grow. Use your voice to make this world better. I liked that by writing this book, this author shows youth that there is hope to educate yourself and to grow beyond what you were taught growing up. You can be steeped in one view (racism, Lost Cause), but can learn and grow. It's possible. And there's so much to uncover about your nation's history outside of your mandated school texts (which sadly may tell you lies!)! Go out and learn for yourself, and think critically about the information presented to you and the society you want to be a part of. I think the message was stated clearly at the end of the book with a precise, concise, and clear call-to-action for young people.
 
Illustrations: The cover is striking. The full-page inserts of different Confederate memorials/statues (their sponsors, subjects, artists, costs, costs-today, and status of whether it still remains up or not) was interesting.
 
Design: Appreciated the timeline but wish it was located in the front of the book, not the back. The source notes and the bibliography are CRAZY EXTENSIVE and I love how well-researched this work was! I liked the full-page inserts of the different Confederate memorials/statues but felt like it would have been better to have these at the start/end of chapters or sections because it broke up the reading flow for me. I felt the same way about the lies - they were sprinkled throughout the book as full-page short summaries, but I believe it would have kept the reading flow better in being at the start or end of chapters to help readers get a clearer summary uninterrupted. Includes quotes from historical figures and historical accounts at the start of the chapters.

Quotes

"The approval of such tributes as long as a century or more ago does not obligate today's mayors and town councils and school boards and residents to accept them now. What a society chooses to celebrate evolves over time. Statues and other forms of commemoration are symbols that convey the priorities of the times. Just because something spoke to a community (or the most influential members of that community) in the past, doesn't mean that it will continue to do so. Public officials are obligated to honor the priorities of the people they serve, not those long dead. It is reasonable for them to withdraw the use of community spaces for displays that no longer resonate with the times." (261)

"Consider the advice of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2023. We must, as a nation, study our past and learn from it in order to create that more perfect union for our future, she said. Each of us has the power to use our voice - and eventually our vote - to advocate for programs and policies that serve the greater good, including in our classrooms and libraries." (288)

"Not only should we train our minds to see beyond the racist visions of past generations. Not only should we fight for the collective strength of the human family...As Du Bois so clearly showed in 1935, we should reject the falsehoods embedded in our national story. When they appear in our schoolbooks or as a statuary in the public square, call out the lies. When falsehoods merge with the movies, fuel political discourse, or masquerade as patriotism, call them out. Promote the nation's undertold stories. Correct the nation's poorly told history. Acknowledge the country's mistakes, just as we accept our own. And do for the greater good the same thing that we can do for ourselves: Rather than repeat the errors of the past, learn from them. Then use that knowledge to better the world. Now is the time." (289)

[Justin Tapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History by Ann Bausum

I received an uncorrected proof from Roaring Brook Press in advance via Netgalley with the expectation, but not requirement, that I write the review. The opinions are my own.

As I write this, the category for the book on Amazon is “Teen & Young Adult,” but that is definitely not the audience– it’s at least on a college reading level. As the author writes, it’s her own attempt to “lance the wounds” of her childhood. The book is meticulously researched with almost 600 footnotes/references that make up 20 percent of the text. There are many historical concepts that a 12 year old hasn’t been exposed to yet. I hope the publisher is able to get the category changed to appeal to a wider and more appropriate audience.

I grew up in Kentucky and was never required to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, learning only later in life that the book takes place in Kentucky. My grandmother, from Texas, set aside time every year – skipping church, mind you – to watch Gone With the Wind with her friends when it was broadcast in its entirety by TNT or some other channel. I’m also a descendant of slavers and have the discomfort of reading between the lines in their property transactions in doing genealogical research. I can remember spending most of the 8th grade studying the Civil War – when the movie Gettysburg was coincidentally in theaters and we all swallowed the “We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Ft. Sumter” as historically accurate. My history teacher – who was Black – seemed likewise to have no qualms with the “it was all about states’ rights” myth. If you have similar memories, this book is for you.

This is a book we need to read, like taking medicine that is unpleasant but you know will make you healthier. Even though I grew up in the South, have loved studying history my whole life, and thought I knew more than I did. As I found it difficult, I decided that it’s essentially like reading about any cult – the deeper the lie goes, the more angry you feel. It’s also hard to read about the bipartisan support in Congress for eliminating Confederate monuments and renaming bases– overriding a presidential veto– only to recently see that reversed by executive order in 2025 without a peep from congress or much of the media. This makes the book even more important.

Bausum examines 20 different myths that still surface from time-to-time in people’s conversations, on message boards, in a speech or an article. Some of those myths were printed as fact in history books, so people vaguely remembering them from childhood shouldn’t be seen as unusual. Most myths became accepted after the generation that had witnessed slavery and the War of the Rebellion had long passed away. In most cases, they were purposefully resurrected during the 1960s and 1970s as southern states strongly objected to federal civil rights legislation and federal court orders ending segregation.

I could complain about the density of the book, the author overly-explores the details of a few characters and many statues and monuments where perhaps only a few pages would have sufficed to make room for content she did not include, but I will definitely keep it as a reference. I’ll be reading some of the books she references, such as W.E.B Dubois’ work on Reconstruction and the introspection of Katherine Du Pre Lumpkin.

There are many things I wish she’d included. Joseph J. Ellis’ recent book The Cause reminded me that none of the Founding Fathers from the South ever argued that slavery was compatible with the Declaration of Independence, thus undermining the Lost Cause claim that they were on the side of the Founders. She doesn’t mention much about the counties in the South – even as far as Alabama – that sent volunteers to the Union cause, and how the commonality in all those places was the lack of slaves. That also helps undermine the “it was all about states’ rights” myth.

Reading Bausum's work, I also wanted to hear the anecdotes and perspective of the historians from the “Dunning School” of thought she was critiquing and other perspectives, particularly on the Reconstruction– which I don’t think was covered well in my history courses. I happened to be reading a history of a North Carolina county from the 1970s written by the late William S. Powell, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill. This was a county that was left with a larger free Black population than White after the Civil War. While Powell states outright that the secession was about slavery, his Black History chapter contains specific anecdotes the author holds up as an example of the “filiality” of the relationship between slaves and owners without mentioning the absolute forced and unequal nature of the relationship. He recounts an 1861 local newspaper story about “a free man of color” who donated to the Confederate cause immediately after hearing North Carolina had seceded, with the article suggesting they could easily raise eager Black troops from the county’s slaves as an example of the spirit of the times. Powell’s Reconstruction portions talk of how Black Republican delegates elected to the NC General Assembly spent time giving speeches with vulgar language and apparently bringing shame to the offices they held, for which the white population was apparently justified in using Jim Crow methods to keep them out of office henceforth. I think Bausum could have spent more time pushing back on any number of specific anecdotal stories which you can find all over the South.

I recently visited the land in which my ancestors lived with their farms, a still very rural area in North Carolina. As I drove the backroads, I saw from the many flags and banners that there was clearly still an active Klan presence, which prompted me to want to study deeper why people still proudly cling to the “Lost Cause,” not knowing that the term itself was invented and intentionally perpetuated after the war as part of the propaganda. I started reading Bausum’s book immediately after the trip. The author doesn’t delve into the psychology of the why, but she covers the how very well. The magnitude of Daughters of the Confederacy as an eager propaganda arm – with their own catechism(!) – and the volume of people who consumed Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind whole cloth, how even U.S. presidents sanctioned monuments in hallowed federal land not even 50 years after the Civil War.

Based on my reading of her book, I reached my own conclusion that the people of the South felt a deep need to feel secure in their status as Whites and their own historical identities. (Indeed a couple people in the book fall into this category explicitly, without the author making it plain.) Many of the people living in my county of origin with my last name now are Black, living on land once owned by slaveholders by the same name, and their histories are sadly largely unrecorded– genealogy is largely a White record. But in their wildly popular effort to make themselves feel better, they succeeded wildly in indoctrinating generations and convincing the North that the South wasn’t so bad after all. I’m thankful for Bausum’s work to help inoculate us from the lies we learned as children, and to help us think critically and seek what we can find from the perspectives of those who lived through it– especially the largely ignored or unwritten histories of African Americans. Five stars.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: WHITE LIES: HOW THE SOUTH LOST THE CIVIL WAR, THEN REWROTE THE HISTORY by Ann Bausum, Macmillan/Roaring Brook, August 2025, 368p., ISBN: 978-1-250-81657-3

“White ones and red ones
And some you can't disguise
Twisted truth and half the news
Can't hide it in your eyes
Lies lies lies yeah”
– Thompson Twins (1983)

“LIE #3: The Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery; it was all about states’ rights.”

“Lies have multiple purposes, and one of them is to create power. The people who have benefited from past lies will be the first to criticize efforts that undercut them. Not surprisingly, they will lie to do it. That’s the problem with lies. Once you start telling them, it’s hard to stop. Threaten liars with the facts, and they’ll reflexively double down with more falsehoods. It’s not surprising today during an era where issues of race, class, and privilege are such a focus of national debate that the matter of truth is too. Lies swirl around us, corrupting our understanding of current events in the same ways that they have distorted our appreciation of the past.
Until we break this cycle, until accuracy replaces misinformation, we will struggle.”
– from the Introduction: The Lost History

Employing dozens of these lies as propaganda, and armed with four potent weapons: voter suppression, Jim Crow segregation, lynchings, and the erection of Confederate-related statues in public places, yesteryear’s enslavers and subsequent generations of their White supremist supporters–both in the South and North–have been responsible for 160 years of countless Black Americans being cheated, mistereated, maimed, killed, and/or otherwise discriminated against because of their skin color. The biggest pile of propaganda bs, known as the Lost Cause, developed as a fantasy alternative to the real history of what slavery actually involved, and the real truth about the Southern states rebelling from the United States.

“[T]he Lost Cause was so captivating, so enticing, so flattering, so face-saving, in short, so convenient. The lies were easier to swallow than the facts.
For example, it was far easier to whitewash the nature of slavery than it was to admit that southern Whites had benefited for generations by exploiting Blacks in an immoral and violent act of enslavement. It was far easier for southern Whites to suggest that Confederate soldiers had been heroes defending the U.S. Constitution instead of rebels supporting the financial interests of enslavers. And it was far easier for southern Whites to blame the federal government for the defeat of the Confederacy than it was to hold the South’s generals accountable.”

“LIE #8: White people are naturally superior to Black people.”

Unbelievably, the legions of lies exposed in this incredible expose were still being formally fed to impressionable young students when we Boomers were kids–and even beyond then!

“What had started as misleading statements intended to spare the South’s ruling class from blame for the region’s demise had accomplished far more than originally expected. The lies of the Lost Cause had been absorbed so thoroughly that they had not only taken hold with White southerners but were influencing Americans as a whole. These falsehoods had helped fuel vigilante violence, derail Reconstruction, and strengthen White supremacy to the South. The Lost Cause had infused public art, inspired works of literature, and perpetuated the celebration of the Confederacy. Furthermore, historians were accepting its lies at face value and beginning to present falsehoods as historical facts.”

As we see from the extensive backmatter, nonfiction author Ann Bausum did a wealth of research in order to expose the lies and (still) ongoing campaign of White supremacy in America. The story details so many vivid examples of the related statues, literature, the demonization of Reconstruction, and all of the lies-lies-lies, yeah! The informational literacy lessons inherent in this nonfiction tale make it a volume that should unquestionably find its way into middle- and high school collections.

“[The] word–truth–would become inseparably linked to the Lost Cause effort. It appears over and over in the historical record, and for a good reason. As historian David W. Blight observed in his study of the postwar period, Race and Reunion, ‘in the sheer repetition of the word “truth” they claimed credibility and sought justification.’ Lies could replace the facts, these southern Whites reasoned, if they insisted loudly enough and long enough that they were the truth.
And, over time, that’s exactly what happened.”

And because that’s exactly what happened, countless millions of Black Americans have been screwed out of their rightful enjoyment of the American Dream…and far worse.

After WWII, Germany quickly ridded itself of tributes to Hitler and Nazi-ism. But 160+ years after the traitorous Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House; there are still lots of statues and plaques in public places that celebrate the joys of slavery and the Confederacy. This makes this extraordinary expose of the White Supremacists’ perverted rewriting of U.S. history the most consequential piece of nonfiction for young people I’ve read so far this year.

And God bless the teacher-librarian who scores a class set of this one, and helps incorporate it into the curriculum.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com

[Leonard Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to give this one star, because that might make it seem I disagree with the author. I agree with the author, but being right requires greater care and responsibility, especially with such an important historiographical matter. This seems an example of the kind of thing that has, in some current progressive soul-searching, been identified, correctly in my opinion, as driving people to re-elect Trump.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Childrens Publishing for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

How many people love the movie Gone with the Wind? I didn’t see it until I was in college, but even back then I was wondering how a story about the glorification of the rebels could be so popular. Then I found out that the novel won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. What?! As I began to explore movie history, there was a silent film called Birth of a Nation that was a HUGE film when it was released in 1915. It got a screening in Woodrow Wilson’s White House (he was born in the Confederate south and segregated the federal government following decades of progress, leaving thousands of upwardly mobile Blacks without jobs.)

Ann Bausum, a Wisconsin author who grew up in Virginia, has taken to task the idea of The Lost Cause that has been so pervasive in parts of our country. And whoa, just whoa! This young adult history book should be required reading for young and old alike. Bausum systematically breaks down how millions of Americans have learned a whitewashed version of events surrounding the War of Rebellion, known to many as the Civil War. How confederate soldiers have received more than 2,000 memorials across the south, and how a few southern groups have reframed the Rebellion as The Lost Cause and romanticized their secession from the United States.

Both the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised tons of money for confederate monuments and to infiltrate everything from newspapers to school textbooks. As late as the 1980s, Virginia textbooks were repeating the lies the Daughters of the Confederacy had crafted. There are literally several generations of southerners who are still alive that were fed the propaganda of The Lost Cause and have to unlearn it.

The mythology that the War of Rebellion was about states’ rights was complete and utter bull shit. It was always about the “peculiar institution” of slavery. It was ALWAYS about keeping the Blacks in bondage. It was always about “plantation politics” (control in Congress), where Blacks were counted as 3/5 of a person and therefore gave the southern elected officials more power in the legislature. It was always about white supremacy.

Also deconstructed in this book is the Confederate Battle Flag, which is not the official flag of the confederate states, but rather a battle flag for a specific group of soldiers. Those who still wave the flag, which includes several southern state capitals, claim that this flag simply is for “southern honor.” I call bull shit again. It’s always about white supremacy.

The book also covers the efforts of the Daughters and Sons of the Confederacy during Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement, leading up to today, when the Felon of the United States actually said that “there’s good people on both sides” following a 2015 massacre in a Charlottesville, S.C. church that was done by a white supremacist. His social media profile showed him posing with the Confederate Battle Flag and his guns.

I highlighted so much in this book because there was so much unbelievable content! Like the fact that General Nathan Bedford Forest has several monuments and memorials to him across the south. The dude was the founding father of the KKK! Yet modern southerners don’t understand why society as a whole wants these confederate monuments taken down. Simply having statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson still divides this country. These men and many more weren’t heroes; they were traitors and there should be no veneration of them in the 21st century.

One of my many highlighted sections was the year 2008, when the U.S. Census Bureau stated that by the year 2050, the white population in the United States would be less than 50%, with the rest of the population combined would make up more than half the country. That was the year that saw the rise of the Tea Party, a more radically conservative part of the Republican Party that eventually took over. That was also the year that we as a national electorate picked a Black man as President. Things have been slowly getting worse in our country ever since.

[YSBR · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the recent and ongoing re-evaluation of Civil War-era statues, museum displays, and military base names, young adult readers have questions and Ann Bausum, with her Virginian upbringing and her well-regarded back catalogue, is the perfect writer for this moment. Although her book encompasses a fair amount of history (which will provide young readers with useful context), I would actually describe White Lies as historiography, an unusual subject for this age group. Bausum opens with a list of 20 lies perpetuated by Lost Cause supporters and then proceeds to walk readers through the events of the war and its aftermath, looking at each lie in greater detail. Although readers may find it hard to believe that some of these lies still find a ready audience (“Slavery was a compassionate institution” or “White people are naturally superior to black people”), others will make readers pause and dig into their own miseducation and the insidious nature of the Lost Cause mythology (“The South’s defeat had been inevitable” and “Reconstruction was a failure”). Bausum zooms in on the architecture of propaganda and how all avenues of persuasion can be marshalled to support racism: popular culture, family loyalties, language and semantics, textbooks and curriculum, and, of course, public art. 

The revelation for most readers will be how deeply ingrained the Lost Cause narrative has become in our national discourse. How did our terminology for the conflict’s original name – “the War of Rebellion” – shift to the more neutral “Civil War” or even to its Lost Cause moniker – “the War Between the States”? Why does supporting enslavement jostle with states’ rights as the stated cause of succession? And most pressing for this book, when and why did the installation of Confederate monuments, plaques, and place names take place? As part of this strand in the book, Bausum periodically includes striking black pages called “Gallery of the Lost Cause”, each focused on one particular monument. These pages include photos along with dates and location, notable inscriptions, important details, and their current status. Despite the press coverage of recent removals, most of the examined items are still in place, as are thousands of other Lost Cause artifacts. 

Back matter for this meticulously researched volume includes a personal note from Bausum about her childhood, an extensive timeline of the war and the Lost Cause narrative, exhaustive and precise source notes, a bibliography, and a very detailed index. Throughout the book, Bausum has assembled interesting visuals; each section opens with a double-page collage of clearly labeled period photographs and ephemera that help set the stage. Bold headings and generously spaced lines of text provide structural guidance for readers. Link to complete review: https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/2...

[Dylan Teut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to work through, but it was because each successive chapter caused me to pause and consider what I've been taught about history, what the present messages are trying to teach me about history, and what the reality is from a very well-researched and logical stance here from Ann Bausum. I read the book to educate myself and to grow in my understanding of how flawed human beings and flawed systems have been at work for decades, and the fight to perpetuate systems and ideologies is still very much alive in our country today. Bausum presents her facts in a straightforward way, grounded in research of a wide body of resources from a wide body of sources. It is easy to follow her logic throughout the book. While the material is heavy and takes time to digest, it is necessary. In the years following the Civil War, there has been an odd fixation from people to control the narrative and to re-phrase and re-write events in order to preserve some sort of feeling of Southern honor or pride. I truly believe it is a matter of pride and racism which corrupts many intentions. The oddity of constructing statue after statue, naming buildings and days after individuals is really a lost cause. In the end, it will all be washed away and the truth will prevail for as long as there are people ready to stand up for it. The book also examines how the perverse obsession with statues and Southern legacy also seeps into our norms and realities today- North and South.
Give it a read and give your mind material to critically examine narratives, objectives, opinions, and motives. This was extremely helpful and I hope it hits the right audiences so we can do better in critically examining what we know, what we think we know, and that which is an objective truth. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars even though I struggled to get through this book. It covers a lot of ground and is honestly rather upsetting.

I was lucky enough to learn about Reconstruction--an enormous missed opportunity--in a high school history class. One of the most upsetting facts Bausum points out, with clear examples from her own life, is that millions of kids in the U.S, weren't so lucky. They were taught lies. They never knew about the great strides made by formerly enslaved people, who became legislators, business owners, journalists, and more--until the Klan and Jim Crow terrorized them into subservience once more.

This was done deliberately and methodically. One of the mechanisms was by setting up monuments to Confederate leaders--not only in the South, but throughout the United States. According to their supporters, the statues are supposed to celebrate heroism, but, in fact, they celebrate racism and oppression and defiance of the Constitution.

Bausum illustrates her text with sidebars about these statues. She tells us exactly who commissioned each one, and why, and what impact it had on both Black and White observers. She also details their fate. Many, thankfully, have been destroyed, but some are still standing.

This is a dense, complex, and essential book. It should be in every library serving older teens, and adults should read it as well. It's especially important now, when White supremacy is once again on the rise. Highly recommended.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confronting history is always a good idea. Bausum has written many books for that purpose and especially focuses on confronting history for young people, however, this will be a hard one for teens to get through because it is dense material. I'm reading an advanced copy of the book digitally, so I am hoping some of my issues in reading the book relate to it's unfocused pagination digitally however there are only a few spreads of images and some text (like the statue information) wasn't formatted in a way that popped from the page. So I will reserve judgement until I see the final, finished copy in print form, because it has to be visually stimulating for a teen audience or the content will just rot on the vine.

It's information is as up to date as it can be when it comes to how the United States is taking a look at statues, commemorations to the Civil War, and art and advertisements. Bausum interrogates the learning and unlearning that needs to occur to better understand "how the south lost the Civil War, then rewrote history" which is a task worthy of her caliber of writing and thoughtfulness but the execution in this format doesn't do the information justice because it reads more dryly than most teens will have tolerance for.

[Shannan Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, the author's thesis is to dispel the twenty biggest Lost Cause myths.. Thoroughly researched, and she gives reasons why the lost cause myths seem to still permeate throughout the United States. Politicians and the Daughters of the Confederacy rely on the Lost Cause to justify white supremacy and their superiority over other races. With the use of statues, movies, books, and even history curriculum, they promote an idealized picture of the antebellum South and the rebel, Confederate fighters as benevolent, chivalrous men whose aim is to maintain this ideological lifestyle. During the reconstruction period and beyond, they portray the KKK as men who help their neighbors and protect women from the evil boogeyman. She also highlights recent events used to dispel the lost cause myth, through the tearing down of monuments and the renaming of bases.

Ms. Buam presents her argument in an approachable manner for middle-grade readers. She effectively disproves the fallacies. I recommend it to people who want the unfiltered truth about American history with all its good, bad, and ugly truths. Thank you, NetGalley and Boldwood Books, for allowing me to review this book.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC.

White Lies uncovers the history of the south during and after the Civil War and how a lot of people try to change and cover up history. It also ties these themes into more current events like the removal of monuments and rise of white supremacy.

I think I have an unpopular opinion. The information in this book was well researched and interesting. I had so much difficultly with the format of the book. Part of it could have been the eARC formatting not being close to what the finished book would actually be like. But my main issue was the format of the 20 lies Bausum debunks. To me, it felt like the lies showed up randomly and were not separate chapters. When the lies showed up, I also felt like she spent most of the section talking about somewhat related background information and only a couple of paragraphs debunking the lie. Again. this could have been the formatting in the eARC or the fact that it took me almost 20 days to read this book. I also felt like the topics would jump around in sections and I was confused.

I still plan on purchasing this for my library and look forward to seeing what the finished book looks like.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
White Lies is an eye-opening examination of Civil War mythology that I found deeply thought-provoking. As someone from the South, I've grown up with a particular narrative about the Civil War, and Bausum's book challenged much of what I thought I knew.

The author's approach is both clever and effective—she presents 20 commonly accepted "truths" about the Civil War and then systematically dismantles them using solid historical research and evidence. This structure makes the book accessible and engaging, even for someone like me who doesn't typically read a lot of nonfiction.

This book is valuable for readers who, like me, may have learned a "slanted narrative" about this pivotal period in American history. It's a reminder that history is often more complex and nuanced than the stories we're told, and that questioning what we think we know can lead to a deeper understanding.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another must-read for those willing to step outside themselves and see things through another lens. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is so eloquently quoted late in this book, “If we’re going to continue to move forward as a nation we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history. We cannot forget because the uncomfortable lessons are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves. We cannot forget because we cannot learn from past mistakes we do not know exist.” Here is the bottom line for me: The rhetoric of justifying wrongful actions with some type of superior belief is a plague in our country. More Americans need to open their eyes and admit to faults in order to become better people, and a better nation. It truly is the only way through this. Please give this book a read. Your eyes -and mind- will be opened, and you will absolutely learn something about yourself and the history you were taught along the way.

[Zach Strassburger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a long time to get through this book because it wasn’t the light fluff I wanted at this point in my life, but that’s nothing against the book itself. I kept opening it back up, and I learned so much about American history and about Southern history. I had heard of the “Lost Cause,” but didn’t really know what was meant by the term. It turns out that some of what I had understood as true about the Civil War (War of the Rebellion!) was actually from propaganda—even down to the name of the conflict!
Theoretically this is a book for young readers but I thought it was perfectly appropriate for adults. I actually recommended it to a DEI book group of which I’m a part. Highly recommend to anyone who reads nonfiction.

I received an eARC of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

[Ember Air · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Lies should be required reading for all teens (and a lot of adults)! It pulls no punches in getting to the bottom of Racism in America. Deconstructing, debunking, and decoding the lies and alternate histories that have been constructed to perpetuate racism - one lie at a time.

With a time line starting before the War of the Rebellion, and continuing on to present times, this book takes a hard look at the truths that have been buried, and the consequences of that burial. By thoroughly examining the Lost Cause and its impacts, White Lies shows the reader how a lot of small decisions and events ultimately cause an avalanche of consequences. This same power can be used for good though; by learning about the truth and actual history - imagine how much better the world could be in just a generation or two.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for a teen audience this book addresses the myth of the Lost Cause and the perpetuation of the myth of the honor of the Confederate cause. The South rebelled against the United States to preserve their ability to own people based on the color of their skin and their leaders were traitors and oath breakers yet we have monuments to these men how did this happen? This book examines the myths that are perpetuated (states rights and honor) as compared to the reality (slavery and treason). It was fascinating to see how groups such as the Daughters of the Confederacy worked to make the depiction of slavery and the Southern cause as something honorable rather than the racist system and dishonorable rebellion it was. I received a free kindle edition of this book from the publisher through the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Lies is an incredibly well-written book that makes history and research very accessible to the modern reader, while also not holding the reader's hand to make them more comfortable in the broken history that they (likely) have been taught or lead to believe about the War of Rebellion. As a southerner especially this book taught me a lot, especially as it presented and thoroughly dismantled each lost cause lie that the south built up after their thorough defeat. This book also serves to connect the lies of the not-so-distant past with the fight for civil rights in the 60s and the continued oppression of black people to this day in America, and ends on a call to action and a place of hope for the future.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bausum believes there are 20 lies regarding the "Lost Cause," what confederacy groups did after the end of the Civil War, which was actually called the war of the rebellion at the time. Those lies revolved around that the war was about states rights and not slavery, the south only lost the war because the north's superior force and resources, the confederate men were honorable and should be recognized. Bausum goes from just before the Civil War all the way up to present day and how the lost cause mythology still endures in various ways. An important read for teens and collage age students who are studying the Civil War or Reconstruction and how the Lost Cause narrative is something that can't be ignored.