The Great Divide
The Lost Cause and the Shifting Priorities of the American Right
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Beschreibung
The American nation has traditionally treated the Lost Cause as a singular phenomenon, a reactionary ideology built from the American South’s perceived victimhood following the Civil War. However, in the myth of the Lost Cause, generations of American far-right individuals and groups have found an ideological and practical model. This book makes two interconnected arguments. First, it argues that there is evidence of modern Confederate and Southern nationalist groups evolving and incorporating more targets into their grievance infrastructures—always in the language of victimhood. These targets progress as the status quo changes, keeping the perceived victimhood of the groups relevant as time passes and more traditionally marginalized communities contest for rights in the American experiment. The second argument is that through the politics and rhetoric of victimhood that find common cause with Trumpism, the Lost Cause remains relevant to conversations about the right’s perceived victimhood focused on a lost status quo ante—up to and including the two mythologies riding into battle together in defense of an electorally defeated president on January 6, 2021.
Anastasja Abraham is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College.
The American nation has traditionally treated the Lost Cause as a singular phenomenon, a reactionary ideology built from the American South’s perceived victimhood following the Civil War. However, in the myth of the Lost Cause, generations of American far-right individuals and groups have found an ideological and practical model. This book makes two interconnected arguments. First, it argues that there is evidence of modern Confederate and Southern nationalist groups evolving and incorporating more targets into their grievance infrastructures—always in the language of victimhood. These targets progress as the status quo changes, keeping the perceived victimhood of the groups relevant as time passes and more traditionally marginalized communities contest for rights in the American experiment. The second argument is that through the politics and rhetoric of victimhood that find common cause with Trumpism, the Lost Cause remains relevant to conversations about the right’s perceived victimhood focused on a lost status quo ante—up to and including the two mythologies riding into battle together in defense of an electorally defeated president on January 6, 2021.
Introduces theory to conceptualize exclusionary orthodoxies practiced by the American right Provides an in-depth analysis of right-wing resistance to the progress of minorities throughout American history Leverages qualitative coding techniques to analyze right-wing writings
Autor*in
Anastasja Abraham
Themen in »The Great Divide«
American politics American nationalism Polarization Far-right politics Lost Cause Syndrome