ECW Podcast: The GOP and Civil War Memory (with Tim Galsworthy)
During and in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, through the Civil War centennial, the Republican Party drew on America’s memories of the war in order to reorganize and reinvent itself. Tim Galsworthy joins the Emerging Civil War Podcast to explain how the modern GOP became “the Party of Lincoln” AND “the Party of Lee.”
The Emerging Civil War Podcast is hosted by Chris Mackowski. This episode is brought to you by Civil War Trails, the world’s largest open-air museum, offering more than 1,500 sites across six states. Request a brochure at civilwartrails.org to start planning your trip today.
Hosted by Chris Mackowski, The Emerging Civil War Podcast taps into ECW’s award-winning line-up of historians and great special guests—all of whom come from a wide variety of backgrounds with a wide variety of interests on a wide variety of topics.
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An excellent discussion. It addressed a question that has bothered me for years. Why and when did the Republican and Democrat parties essentially flip their positions on states rights, civil rights, and civil war memory of the civil war leaders. Galsworthy was able to explain, effectively a logical progression and reasons for it.
Maybe this is addressed in his book, but there was no mention of the growth of the suburbs in the South post World War II with respect to the growing strength of the GOP in that region. That is like discussing the rise of Grant in the Civil War without mentioning the Vicksburg campaign. Also, Nixon actively discouraged attempts to discredit or challenge Kennedy’s election in 1960 because he thought it would hurt the country. Mr. Galsworthy would not even give Nixon that, which is a tell.
More broadly, things change. The Overton Window keeps moving and a person can be in favor of the civil rights acts of the 1960s and be against, for example, reparations or the widespread rioting in 2020. Where does that person fall within the “civil rights” spectrum? People have complex and changing views because reality is complex and changing. Finally, as a general thought, Confederates in the Attic was insightful and successful because Tony Horwitz did not look down on anyone, or if he did at least hid it well. We should all emulate that.