The Confederate battle flag: America's most embattled emblem (Google eBook)

John M Coski

Harvard University Press, 2005 - Social Science - 401 pages

In recent years, the Confederate flag has become as much a news item as a Civil War relic. Intense public debates have erupted over Confederate flags flying atop state capitols, being incorporated into state flags, waving from dormitory windows, or adorning the T-shirts and jeans of public school children. To some, this piece of cloth is a symbol of white supremacy and enduring racial injustice; to others, it represents a rich Southern heritage and an essential link to a glorious past. Polarizing Americans, these "flag wars" reveal the profound--and still unhealed--schisms that have plagued the country since the Civil War.

The Confederate Battle Flag is the first comprehensive history of this contested symbol. Transcending conventional partisanship, John Coski reveals the flag's origins as one of many banners unfurled on the battlefields of the Civil War. He shows how it emerged as the preeminent representation of the Confederacy and was transformed into a cultural icon from Reconstruction on, becoming an aggressively racist symbol only after World War II and during the Civil Rights movement. We gain unique insight into the fine line between the flag's use as a historical emblem and as an invocation of the Confederate nation and all it stood for. Pursuing the flag's conflicting meanings, Coski suggests how this provocative artifact, which has been viewed with pride, fear, anger, nostalgia, and disgust, might ultimately provide Americans with the common ground of a shared and complex history.

What people are saying

Review: The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem

User Review  - Isa - Goodreads

There can be no "states' right's" argument when it comes to causes of the Civil War that is not implicitly racist by design. If one invokes a right that one claims on the basis of being a man, and ...

Review: The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem

User Review  - Julie H. - Goodreads

I can't think of a better example of a symbol that people love to hate, hate to love, or love to love. Flags are powerful symbols, and this one no less so than any other. Will post more when I'm done.

Contents

• Preface: vii
• Emblem of a Separate and Independent Nation: 2
• The WarTorn Cross: 28
• Unfurl the Old Flag: 45
• A Harmless and Rather Amusing Gesture: 78
• The Shadow of States Rights: 98
• Keep Your Eyes on Those Confederate Flags: 110
• Symbol of the White Race and White Supremacy: 132
• The Perverted Banner: 161
• Vindication of the Cause: 184
• The Bitterest Battleground: 202
• If They Talk about Diversity Theyre Gonna Get It: 217
• What We Stood For Will Stand For and Will Fight For: 236
• You Cant Erase History: 272
• The Second American Flag: 292
• Abbreviations: 308
• Notes: 311
• Index: 381

About the author

John M. Coski is Historian and Library Director at The Museum of the Confederacy

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Confederate battle flag: America's most embattled emblem
• Author: John M Coski
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0674029860, 9780674029866
• Length: 401 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Sociology / Urban