Not Even Past

The Stories We Keep Telling about the Civil War

Cody Marrs (Professor, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences)

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English

Johns Hopkins University Press
15 March 2020

Literature: history & criticism; Literary theory; History; History of the Americas

How the Civil War endures in American life through literature and culture.

Recipient of the Eric Hoffer Award's Montaigne Medal

The American Civil War lives on in our collective imagination like few other events. The story of the war has been retold in countless films, novels, poems, memoirs, plays, sculptures, and monuments. Often remembered as an emancipatory struggle, as an attempt to destroy slavery in America now and forever, it is also memorialized as a fight for Southern independence; as a fratricide that divided the national family; and as a dark, cruel conflict defined by its brutality. What do these stories, myths, and rumors have in common, and what do they teach us about modern America?

In this fascinating book, Cody Marrs reveals how these narratives evolved over time and why they acquired such lasting power. Marrs addresses an eclectic range of texts, traditions, and creators, from Walt Whitman, Abram Ryan, and Abraham Lincoln to Margaret Mitchell, D. W. Griffith, and W. E. B. Du Bois. He also identifies several basic plots about the Civil War that anchor public memory and continually compete for cultural primacy. In other words, from the perspective of American cultural memory, there is no single Civil War.

Whether they fill us with elation or terror; whether they side with the North or the South; whether they come from the 1860s, the 1960s, or today, these stories all make one thing vividly clear: the Civil War is an ongoing conflict, persisting not merely as a cultural touchstone but as an unresolved struggle through which Americans inevitably define themselves. A timely, evocative, and beautifully written book, Not Even Past is essential reading for anyone interested in the Civil War and its role in American history.

By: Cody Marrs (Professor Franklin College of Arts & Sciences)
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9781421436654
ISBN 10: 1421436655
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 15 March 2020
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Preface Introduction Chapter 1. A Family Squabble Chapter 2. A Dark and Cruel War Chapter 3. The Lost Cause Chapter 4. The Great Emancipation Afterword. Recent and Future Civil Wars Acknowledgments Notes Suggested Further Reading Index

Cody Marrs is an associate professor of English at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Long Civil War, the editor of The New Melville Studies, and the coeditor of Timelines of American Literature.

Reviews for Not Even Past: The Stories We Keep Telling about the Civil War

Marrs weaves a complex history to capture the essence of the literature and art surrounding the Civil War, resulting in a valuable work beneficial to a variety of collections. * Library Journal * Marrs examines the shifting landscape of Civil War perspectives throughout history using public memory and writing from creators such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Walt Whitman, and Margaret Mitchell. He argues that this continual retelling and reinterpretation reveal the Civil War as an ongoing struggle never far from American consciousness and identity. -- Chelsea Risley * Southern Review of Books *