The Civil War at the Dawn of the Great Depression

This chapter explores why and how the Great Depression prompted Americans to look back at the US Civil War while also considering the type of Civil War memory Americans inherited from the 1920s. That memory continued to be slanted toward romantic stories of reconciliation and sentimental reflections on the Lost Cause, although some new influences – specifically the rise of modernism and a more visible and militant African American presence in art and politics – were also beginning to reshape the memory of the war.