The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)

An important and necessary topic. And a reasonably well-written book. My primary complaint is that Gilpen Faust's treatment of religion suffers from some relatively serious shortcomings. There is a tendency in contemporary historiography to treat religion almost entirely (or even primarily) as a mode of "justification" for this or that way of thinking, action, etc. This provides for a very superficial view of religion, and one that is almost entirely instrumentalist. It fails to grapple with the aspects of religion which cannot be simply presented as means for justifying belief or behavior, and tends to reduce nearly all aspects of religion to that mode. A reasonable sense of what it means to study religion as an academic (historical, theoretical) subject does not allow for that kind of not terribly well-conceived reduction, and that kind of reduction is very often a cover for the author's ignorance of religion (including theology, doctrine, etc. when applicable). There is no such thing as "religion" in general or abstract, as the term serves really as a categorical shorthand, and that also complicates this kind of reductive approach. The fallout of this reductive approach is that religion is seen to justify behaviors or beliefs, but one is left with no actual conceptualization or information as to how those behaviors or beliefs function to produce, reinforce, inform, etc. whatever is being described. And when identical theological or doctrinal or lived-experience modes of religion - Christianity, to be precise, in this context - are seen as modes of justification, yet result in vastly different and even incompatible beliefs or behaviors, there is no further analysis of how and why and by what means this works to accomplish what it is said to accomplish. In her book, religion (meaning, again, Christianity, not "religion" in general) is seen to justify slavery, abolitionism, Confederate nationalism, and American (federal) nationalism. It therefore looses any actual explanatory capacity when treated in that way, and this problem is compounded when what is apparently justified by religion is something presented as external to religion. What is internal or external - or typically religious vs. political - is extraordinarily hard to sort out when a seriously informed sense of Christianity is taken into account, yet that is precisely the work that needs to be done. Gilpin Faust is here among the many, many contemporary historians whose work fails to demonstrate that the author has approached her topic with the kind of intellectual preparation necessary to do the work that she proposes to do.On other accounts, her portrayal of Confederate nationalism is both interesting and largely persuasive. It is simply that religion is such a central and important part of that historical phenomenon - as it was for the North as well, and the shaping of American nationalism (and especially American exceptionalism - of which Lincoln was a preeminant example). The work of Eugene Genovese is a good counter-example to Gilpin Faust when it comes to the treatment of religion. His approach could be improved upon, but it seems to me to quite studiously avoid the reductive genericism of treating religion simply as a mode of justifying various kinds of beliefs and behaviors. And there is often in his work something approaching a theological sensitivity to nuance and complexity that is lacking in Gilpin Faust's work.

fascinating perspective on the construction of Confederate nationalism. The lecture format makes the book easy to read and comprehend, and Faust is an awesome scholar.

Great series.

This book is very short but also very informative. I found it to be a pretty interesting read and would recommend it to others interested in Civil War history.

It was clear, precise and thoroughly documented. A superb bit of scholarship. Besides I learned a lot about Confederate Nationalism I didn't know. Needless to say, although the book was written in the 1980's it is very timely; the confederate flag issue cannot be fully understood without the kind of research and writing provided by Dr. Gilpin.

In this book Faust describes some of the ideas that formed the core of the Confederate nationalist experience. The notion of race (not only distinguishing blacks and whites, but also Southerners from "Yankees" based on racial notions of Normans vs. Anglo-Saxons), the public outcry against profiteering and capitalism, the concern for moral reform of the institution of slavery, and the evangelical religious experience are the central themes of this book. Faust does a good job a cataloging the language symbols used by Confederates in public discussion of these central tenants of the nationalist impulse.There are a couple of things I don't like about this book. As other reviewers have noted, the writing is quite bland. To be sure, one might argue that when writing about a topic as academic as Confederate Nationalism it is exceedingly difficult to write in a manner that keeps the pages turning. Nevertheless, Faust seems to be a little to redundant in making her points. Also, her arguments are not always well-supported. Her chapter concerning profiteering and anti-capitalism sentiment is a good example of refuting one's own point. In attempting to establish the impulse against profiteering as a source of nationalist sentiment Faust weakened her argument by ending the chapter with a discussion of the fairly broad demographic that was more than comfortable with the advent of market forces.The strongest chapter of this book, in my opinion, is that which covers the evangelical religious essence of Confederate society as a source of nationalism. The sources used aptly illuminate the nature of the Confederate religious experience. Here, however, I feel that Faust bit off a little more than she could chew. She briefly touched upon the place of St. Augustine in this public discussion, but she failed to convey the verdict Augustine undoubtedly would have had concerning Confederate notions of the relationship between reverses on the battlefield on public "sins". In  City of God , Augustine describes a de-divinized worldview in which empires rise and fall irregardless of their Christian virtuousness. This is decidedly different from the widely held Confederate view that if Confederate society was more virtuous God would discontinue punishing the Confederate military effort. The divinized worldview is essentially what Faust is after in her chapter on evangelical religion, however she fails to nail it down as such. This leaves the reader with only a vague sense of what she's talking about.This book was okay; I don't regret reading it, though I wouldn't recommend it. Even though it's relatively short (about 85 pages) I don't believe it is worth adding to a college-level Civil War course. There are better books out there for that, such as Emory Thomas'  Confederate Nation: 1861-1865 . Three stars for a mediocre book.