ABC’s North and South (Book I and Book II) Miniseries as an Expression of Reaganite Ideology

Abstract

The article examines the compatibility of David L. Wolper’s adaptation of North and South (Book I and Book II) with Reaganite ideology. It discusses the modifications of the original text (characters and events) to demonstrate how a Civil War novel has been transformed into a mirror image of Reaganite America. Wolper’s TV adaptation forms part of Ronald Reagan’s governing narrative of building one and strong America. The positive investment in the past – sanitizing or eliminating socially divisive issues, such as slavery and promoting core values such as family – helps to reach the national consensus on history that everybody (Southerners and Northerners) can identify with. Wrapped in the 1980s aesthetics of opulence, Wolper’s adaptation conveys a message of America’s greatness, attainable under the Lincoln-Reagan rallying cry “we must all stand united as Americans.”