Description: Since the Civil War whites and blacks have struggled over the meanings and uses of the Southern past. The Southern Past argues that these battles are ultimately about who has the power to determine what we remember of the past, and whether that remembrance will honor all Southerners or only select groups.
Brief description: W. Fitzhugh Brundage is William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his present work on torture in American history. Brundage has written extensively on racial inequality and violence, from segregation to lynching.
Review Quotes: Even in such a vital and increasingly crowded field, The Southern Past stands out as a rare accomplishment...in his detailed account of the various interrelated responses to the "relevance of history" from the Civil War to the recent past, Brundage offers detailed guidance for new negotiations over and with history. In the process, he has told a story that represents scholarship at its most rigorous and hopeful best.--John Ernest "CLIO"