{"product_id":"race-and-reunion-the-civil-war-in-american-memory-9780674003323","title":"Race and Reunion : The Civil War in American Memory","description":"\u003cp\u003eNo historical event has left as deep an imprint on Americas collective memory as the Civil War. In the wars aftermath  Americans had to embrace and cast off a traumatic past. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting  and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and Americas national reunion. In 1865  confronted with a ravaged landscape and a torn America  the North and South began a slow and painful process of reconciliation. The ensuing decades witnessed the triumph of a culture of reunion  which downplayed sectional division and emphasized the heroics of a battle between noble men of the Blue and the Gray. Nearly lost in national culture were the moral crusades over slavery that ignited the war  the presence and participation of African Americans throughout the war  and the promise of emancipation that emerged from the war. Race and Reunion is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War. Blight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice  Reconstruction  the romanticized South of literature  soldiers reminiscences of battle  the idea of the Lost Cause  and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African-American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial. Blights sweeping narrative of triumph and tragedy  romance and realism  is a compelling tale of the politics of memory  of how a nation healed from civil war without justice. By the early twentieth century  the problems of race and reunion were locked in mutual dependence  a painful legacy that continues to haunt us today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45279702286389,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674003322","price":114.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674003323.jpg?v=1780607056","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/race-and-reunion-the-civil-war-in-american-memory-9780674003323","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}