The South to Posterity

The South to Posterity - Cover

An Introduction to the Writing of Confederate History

by Douglas Southall Freeman

introduction by Gary W. Gallagher

236 pages / 5.50 x 7.75 inches / no illustrations

History / United States - Civil War Period

Paperback / 9780807123164 / October 1998

“A valuable guide to a number of cornerstones, as well as to many less vital building blocks, of the Confederate historiographical edifice.”—Gary W. Gallagher, from his Introduction

After the publication of Gone with the Wind, many Confederate historians were asked, “What shall I read next?” To answer the requests for further writings on the Civil War era, distinguished historian Douglas Southall Freeman assembled this bibliography of the best narratives, memoirs, and other works—those that tell their stories simply, with wit and realism—that provide a good introduction to literature on the Lost Cause.

In contrast to most bibliographies, The South to Posterity reads easily and often movingly. In eight masterful chapters, Freeman reviews soldiers’ battlefield accounts; vindications penned just after the war; biographies of and tributes to General Robert E. Lee; women’s commentaries; thoughts from foreign observers and participants; and diaries, letters, and speeches; and discusses topics yet to be addressed. A new introduction by Civil War historian Gary Gallagher provides an excellent background to Freeman’s life and work and considers what has been accomplished in the field since South to Posterity first appeared. 

Douglas Southall Freeman (1886-1953) was editor of the Richmond News Leader and a major American biographer. He was the author of R.E. Lee, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 1934, Lee's Lieutenants, and George Washington, for which he was posthumously awarded a second Pulitzer Prize. Grady McWhiney is Lyndon Baines Johnson Professor of American History at Texas Christian University, coauthor of Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics of the Southern Heritage, and author of Southerners and Other Americans and Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat.

Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is the author or editor of more than forty books on the Civil War and its memory.

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