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Not Even Past: The Stories We Keep Telling about the Civil War
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About Not Even Past: The Stories We Keep Telling About
Product Description How the Civil War endures in American life through literature and culture. The American Civil War lives on in our collective imagination like few other events. The story of the war has been retold in countless films, novels, poems, memoirs, plays, sculptures, and monuments. Often remembered as an emancipatory struggle, as an attempt to destroy slavery in America now and forever, it is also memorialized as a fight for Southern independence; as a fratricide that divided the national family; and as a dark, cruel conflict defined by its brutality. What do these stories, myths, and rumors have in common, and what do they teach us about modern America? In this fascinating book, Cody Marrs reveals how these narratives evolved over time and why they acquired such lasting power. Marrs addresses an eclectic range of texts, traditions, and creators, from Walt Whitman, Abram Ryan, and Abraham Lincoln to Margaret Mitchell, D. W. Griffith, and W. E. B. Du Bois. He also identifies several basic plots about the Civil War that anchor public memory and continually compete for cultural primacy. In other words, from the perspective of American cultural memory, there is no single Civil War. Whether they fill us with elation or terror; whether they side with the North or the South; whether they come from the 1860s, the 1960s, or today, these stories all make one thing vividly clear: the Civil War is an ongoing conflict, persisting not merely as a cultural touchstone but as an unresolved struggle through which Americans inevitably define themselves. A timely, evocative, and beautifully written book, Not Even Past is essential reading for anyone interested in the Civil War and its role in American history. Review "Marrs examines the shifting landscape of Civil War perspectives throughout history using public memory and writing from creators such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Walt Whitman, and Margaret Mitchell. He argues that this continual retelling and reinterpretation reveal the Civil War as an ongoing struggle never far from American consciousness and identity." (Chelsea Risley Southern Review of Books) "Marrs weaves a complex history to capture the essence of the literature and art surrounding the Civil War, resulting in a valuable work beneficial to a variety of collections." ( Library Journal) "Not Even Past is a trenchant, wide-ranging survey of the history that binds us a nation while, at the same time, drives us apart. Because it still needs proving now and again, Marrs' book proves that the American Civil War is with us today as much as it was when it began a century and a half ago." (Lance Weller New York Journal of Books) "Not Even Past is an impressive feat that straddles the line between intense academic history and popular history. The world needs more such books." (Daniel Sunshine Civil War Book Review) "An excellent, wide-ranging literary history of the Civil War that covers not only fiction, history, and memoir, but also painting, sculpture, public memorials, and film. Marrs writes with relaxed authority, sharing the reader's curiosity. Insightful, nuanced, and well informed, this book makes an excellent guide." (John Burt, Brandeis University, author of Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict) "An ambitious book that promises to make a substantial, revelatory contribution to American literary and cultural studies. Readers will be enlightened by Marrs's discussion of the origin, evolution, and popularity of his defining Civil War plots." (David S. Reynolds, City University of New York, author of Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America) "The shooting ended in 1865 with Confederate surrender, but the Civil War has lived on in memory and myth and a continuing struggle to define its meanings and fulfill its promise of freedom. Cody Marrs's survey of the ways in which the war has been dissected and memorialized in literature, art, monuments, commemora
