A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868

Historians often assert that Confederate nationalism had its origins in pre–Civil War sectional conflict with the North, reached its apex at the start of the war, and then dropped off quickly after the end of hostilities. Anne Sarah Rubin argues instead that white Southerners did not actually begin to formulate a national identity until it became evident that the Confederacy was destined to fight a lengthy war against the Union. She also demonstrates that an attachment to a symbolic or sent...