This podcast explores some puzzling historical questions: How were white southerners able to convince themselves that the Lost Cause was true? Why were northerners so open to embracing these lies? How was violence and terror normalized and the cruelty of segregation accepted as a fact of life?
I don’t think you can fully answer those questions without asking deeper questions about human psychology - questions about how we as individuals form beliefs, how groups construct narratives, and how - under the right conditions - these narratives drive extremism, violence, and division.
This bonus episode is a conversation with Williams College psychologist Steve Fein that explores the science behind the history of Reconstruction. It uses cutting-edge research on group psychology as a lens to view the events covered in the show - and offers lessons for understanding conflict today.
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