This lecture for HIST 2013 covers the creation of Lost Cause ideology by white southerners in the aftermath of the Civil War. It details how these individuals disseminated a falsified memory of the war that emphasized states rights, rather than slavery, as the true cause of the conflict. It posits that Reconstruction was also vilified by pro-Confederate groups that portrayed terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan as heroic defenders of white womanhood and demonized black men as savage rapists incapable of wielding political power. It recounts how national reconciliation efforts hid the continued animosity between northern and southern veterans. It describes how northerners became disenchanted with their veterans and ignored the creeping infiltration of Lost Cause ideology into school curriculums by memorial groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

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