Lost Cause and the Great War: Progressive Reform and Patriotism in the American South [Minkštas viršelis]

""The Lost Cause and the Great War" examines the evolving political vision of several middle Tennessee Progressive reformers who had to react to the tumultuous changes caused by America's involvement in World War I, the New Era and the Jazz Age, the Great Depression, and the nation's rise to global military power. The book's main character, Luke Lea, was a prominent statewide politician who gained fame when, as an officer in the American army in 1918, he tried to capture Kaiser Wilhelm II and make him a prisoner of the armistice process. Lea and the other participants in this account matter because they were trying to balance three distinct narratives and loyalties. First, they were Progressive reformers - Prohibitionists originally - devoted to creatinga nation of productive and public-spirited workers, professionals, and businessmen. They embraced a narrative of national progress as they defined the idea. Then, when events forced the Wilson administration to intervene in the First World War, these Tennesseans had to weave their vision of reform into a war effort that demanded sacrificial patriotism. Finally, they had to balance this new all-Americanism with an elaborate narrative of the Lost Cause that they had been cultivating for years. Lea and the other characters were thus forced to integrate three distinct narratives of reform, nationalism, and sectional defiance. The book argues that Lea and others harmonized these narratives effectively until the emerging Civil Rights movement began to destabilize the national commitment to racial segregation in the late 1940s. As the book details, this harmonizing required considerable work. Lea and other actors had to confront a series of challenges over three decades. The book examines these confrontations in detailed discussions of Tennessee's 1928 presidential campaign, the state American Legion's response to the federal government's slashing of veteran's benefits in 1933, and the effort of some Americans to redefine the country's place in the world aroundthe United Nations' resolution on Human Rights. This study cautions historians of the twentieth century South to take a nuanced approach to the region's unquestioned devotion to the Lost Cause. Lea and the other characters examined here had no difficultyweaving nationalism and sectionalism into a common narrative. More important, these middle Tennesseans were like many Americans before 1945 in that they measured national power in terms of internal political coherence and economic equity. The willingnessto inflict mass destruction and engineer regime change belonged to a later age"--

How Tennessee reformers reconciled Southern heritage with rising nationalism, weaving the Lost Cause into the fabric of American progress and identity

The Lost Cause and the Great War tells the stories of central Tennessee Progressive-era reformers to illustrate the fascinating broader issue of how Southerners steeped in Lost Cause Civil War mythologies simultaneously developed patriotic American fervor. Focusing on Luke Lea, a prominent politician and American army officer who attempted to capture Kaiser Wilhelm II during World War I, the book reveals the intricate interplay between three competing ideas: attachment to the memory of the Confederacy, intense American nationalism, and advocacy for progressive reforms.

Hunt shows that Lea and his contemporaries sought either to harmonize these competing loyalties or to compartmentalize them to use when needed. Through insightful accounts of Tennessee’s 1928 presidential campaign, the American Legion’s response to cuts to veteran benefits in 1933, and the redefinition of America’s global role post–World War II, Hunt shows how these reformers achieved a balance that held until the Civil Rights movement disrupted this delicate consensus.

Hunt’s rich account reveals how Lea and others like him wove national patriotism and Southern collective memory into a cohesive narrative that supported their broader Progressive goals. The book offers much to readers interested in Southern history, the Gilded Age, Prohibition, World War I, World War II, and the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement. It provides vivid examples of how collective memory and narratives shape social and political movements. General readers will discover how white Southerners who remained devoted to vindicating the Confederacy nonetheless became fervent supporters of America's growing nationalism in the early twentieth century.

How Tennessee reformers reconciled Southern heritage with rising nationalism, weaving the Lost Cause into the fabric of American progress and identity