| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 235 words from this article are provided below; about 426 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History. By David Goldfield. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002. xvi, 354 pp. $34.95, ISBN 0-8071-2758-2.)

One often hears it said, particularly among transplants to the region from the North, that the South is still fighting the Civil War. But has not the South won? Does the region not dominate Congress, the presidency, and the judicial branch of the U.S. government to a degree not seen since the 1850s? Are not the values David Goldfield describes--relatively 'weak state government and regulations, a deep belief in the sanctity of private property, and a fragile concept of the general welfare that dissolve[s] on contact with the interests of political and economic leaders'--dominant in the nation as a whole? Are not its race relations at least as good as those anywhere else in the United States? 1

More than one Yankee would say so. But, however valid such an opinion may be, it largely misses the point. For the South is, in fact, still fighting. Now, however, the conflict has become an intra-regional civil war over the Civil War. Confederate reenactors, genealogists, and other keepers of collective memory often invoke 'heritage' as the reason for their enterprises. This book poses the question: Which one? Now more than ever, there is intense ideological competition for the status of common sense in a specifically southern context. . . .

There are about 426 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.