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 sentimental Confederacy existed
independent of the political Confederacy and was therefore able to
persist well after the collapse of the Confederate state. White
Southerners redefined symbols and figures of the failed state as
emotional touchstones and political rallying points in the struggle
to retain local (and racial) control, even as former Confederates
took the loyalty oath and applied for pardons in droves.
Exploring the creation, maintenance, and transformation of
Confederate identity during the tumultuous years of the Civil War
and Reconstruction, Rubin sheds new light on the ways in which
Confederates felt connected to their national creation and provides
a provocative example of what happens when a nation disintegrates
and leaves its people behind to forge a new identity.