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The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause
Book by Mark E. Jr. Harold Holzer et al Neely
- GenresHistory
257 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 3, 2017
A good survey of wartime and postbellum Southern iconography as represented in popular prints, with twenty colour plates and 120 black&white illustrations. It offers plenty of solid background information about the artists responsible, and about the subject matter of the prints, not so much in the way of in-depth analysis or interpretation of the art.
The authors dabble a little in psychohistory. They argue that the proliferation of Northern prints of the capture of Jeff Davis while disguised as a woman helped defuse hostility toward the South; in a society based on strong beliefs about the importance of manliness, feminizing an adversary gave one psychological permission to dismiss him with a jeer rather than lunge at his throat. The "myth of the Lost Cause" (as conceptualized by Charles Reagan Wilson) is offered as a catch-all explanation for most of the postwar work.
The tone of the text varies startlingly from snippy to sympathetic, presumably a result of the book's multiple authorship.
The authors dabble a little in psychohistory. They argue that the proliferation of Northern prints of the capture of Jeff Davis while disguised as a woman helped defuse hostility toward the South; in a society based on strong beliefs about the importance of manliness, feminizing an adversary gave one psychological permission to dismiss him with a jeer rather than lunge at his throat. The "myth of the Lost Cause" (as conceptualized by Charles Reagan Wilson) is offered as a catch-all explanation for most of the postwar work.
The tone of the text varies startlingly from snippy to sympathetic, presumably a result of the book's multiple authorship.
Displaying 1 of 1 review