| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 196 words from this article are provided below; about 372 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, 94.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Troubled Commemoration: The American Civil War Centennial, 1961–1965. By Robert J. Cook. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. xvi, 300 pp. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-3227-2.)
Already, the arrival of the Civil War sesquicentennial is inspiring dread. No federal commission has yet been established, and everyone acknowledges the reason: old wounds can still be reopened. Many still remember the rancor that arose during the Civil War centennial commemoration back in the sixties. Robert J. Cook has given us a useful account of the events that accompanied the work of the United States Civil War Centennial Commission, established by Congress in 1957.	1
"The war did not divide us," asserted the commission's first chairman, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant III, in 1960; "rather, it united us, in spite of a long period of bitterness...." Cook shows how Grant's "consensual approach"—which the author regards as "an exercise in cold war nationalism"—"ran into serious trouble" right away (p. 2). Of course it did: it was ludicrous to talk about the ways the Civil War "united us" when the segregationist battle cries of the early 1960s were uttered in the shadow of the South's "lost cause."	. . .

There are about 372 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.