| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 346 words from this article are provided below; about 717 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, 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. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• 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 American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
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 American Historical Review, 108.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Robert E. Bonner. Colors and Blood: Flag Passions of the Confederate South. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 223. $29.95.
In this informative, useful, and occasionally provocative study, Robert E. Bonner tells us much about the role of "flag passions" and "flag cultures" in both shaping and reflecting the evolution of popular attitudes toward the Civil War. Despite his southern focus, Bonner places popular reactions to the flags of the Confederacy and of the United States in the broader context of mid-nineteenth-century Victorian emotionalism. Acutely sensitive to complexity, he probes the ambivalence and even emotional anguish with which Confederate leaders transferred their allegiance from the "Stars and Stripes" to the first Confederate national flag, the "Stars and Bars," despite the fact that the latter was largely cloned from the former.	1
Proponents of the Stars and Bars had praised its resemblance to the United States flag as altogether appropriate, because it was the Confederates, not the Yankees, who were supposedly defending the real principles that had fueled the American Revolution and inspired the founders of the American republic. The paradox of fighting for a flag so glaringly derivative of the banner of their enemies quickly wore thin, however, leading to the adoption of a new design based on the St. Andrew's Cross battle flag used initially by P. G. T. Beauregard and later by other commanders, including Robert E. Lee. Beauregard spearheaded the promotion of this flag, which had been "consecrated by the best blood of our country on so many battlefields" (p. 108). The flag's X-shaped cross, symbolic of the one on which St. Andrew had been crucified, celebrated both martyrdom to a holy cause and the military success of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Emblazoned with stars representing the states of the Confederacy, the new "Southern Cross" was certified in 1863 as the official battle flag of the Confederate Army and incorporated, against a pure white background, into the "stainless banner" that became the second national flag of the Confederacy.	. . .

There are about 717 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.