Book Review: They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America
They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America. Edited by John M. Kinder and Jennifer M. Murray. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2026. Paperback, 314 pp. $35.00.
Reviewed by Samuel Flowers
When we hear the term “Civil War Memory,” our first thought might veer toward the issue of Confederate monuments. While that is a valuable discussion to have among both historians and the general public, John Kinder and Jennifer Murray say that the scope of “Civil War Memory” needs to be widened. In They Are Dead and Yet They Live, the collection of essays by a number of academic scholars and park rangers argues that the nation has most recently actively remembered the Civil War and Reconstruction in the twenty-first century. Amidst what Kinder and Murray conclude as “nearly unprecedented levels of polarization in contemporary American politics,” the book looks to explain the present conditions of division, consumerism, “memory spaces,” and racial violence and connect such to the past. (6-7)
The book is divided into five parts, each focusing on different aspects of Civil War memory in distinct ways. The first part focuses on a more conventional interpretation of memory, with Brooks Simpson addressing how Reconstruction is a better echo of the last decade, and Tim Galsworthy’s abridged version of his own work on how the GOP absorbed Lost Cause politics. Section two looks at different versions of projects that revolved around the war’s memory, such as Murray’s piece on the naming, renaming, and re-renaming of United States Army Bases, Park Ranger Steve Phan’s chapter on the history and relevance of Camp Nelson National Monument, and Joshua Wolf’s story of a Black man lynched and the community suppressing and contorting the narrative over time.
The third section focuses on the consumerism aspect of Civil War memory discussed earlier. These chapters prompt the reader to examine the connections between our popular culture and the Confederacy, whether it is country music and its use of the battle flag, or how historical romance novels distort antebellum society and culture. One chapter by University of Richmond rhetoric professor, Nicole Maurantonio, describes how Southern-based clothing lines use rhetorical lines, color palettes, fonts, and icons to “soften the stereotype of the Confederate Rebel.” (182)
As the book continues, the tone shifts from reimaging memory and popular culture of the recent past, toward a more recent discussion of race, memory, and the era of Donald Trump. The fourth section, titled “Civil War Memory in the Age of Black Lives Matter,” has historians Scott Hancock and Kevin Levin look at how African Americans are depicted in history, whether their lives mattered during the Gettysburg Campaign, and if they were loyal Confederate soldiers, respectively. Hancock’s chapter specifically used his own personal experience with white militia groups at the Gettysburg battlefield during the climax of the summer protests over the murder of George Floyd as the leadoff point to his question: Did Black lives matter in both 2020 and 1863?
The last section concludes the book with questions about the alleged second civil war that many politicians and news outlets have said was going to happen. Brett Barnett explores how the Confederate Battle Flag was not initially appropriated by the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, but quickly was affiliated with white supremacist movements during the Civil Rights Movement and neo-Nazi organizations in the late twentieth century. The last chapter by coeditor John Kinder was what left me speechless throughout the entire reading. Titled “Dylann Roof’s Civil Wars,” Kinder takes a page out of Confederates in the Attic (1998) and How the Word Is Passed (2021) and journeys through some of the same South Carolina museums, cemeteries, and historic sites that fed the “toxic mix of fear, lies, and anger” leading up to Roof murdering in cold blood nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. (255)
They Are Dead and Yet They Live extends our understanding of what we consider Civil War Memory, especially in a time in our nation’s history when Americans attempt to predict when the next one will happen. Kinder and Murray highlight that although the Civil War ended slavery and answered the question of secession, it had never resolved issues of equality and political division. Given the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the fierce backlash to course-corrected history from the current administration, this volume of articles continues to document a long and complex struggle that has endured since Appomattox. In the words of Kinder and Murray, “If we want to avoid a second civil war, we cannot forget the first one.” (280)
It should be renamed “Confederate msmory.” Memories of war usually involve both sides, no?
Hey Michael,
I do think there is something to say about Union memory (see Brian Matthew Jordan’s “Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War”). I believe, as the title suggests, polarized Civil War Memory issues revolve primarily around Confederate iconography and nostalgia, especially when it’s in a lot of popular culture. This is why the chapter authors chose the topics they chose.
Well, again, and I realize this is nitpicking somewhat, if they are going to focus on Confederate iconography or nostalgia, why not just say that? Why hide behind “Civil War memory” and then only focus on one side? You know what I mean? Clearly they didn’t intend to cover the Lincoln impersonation industry.
more woke nonsense. what is this, presentism or history? the two or mutually exclusive.
Civil War “memory” – or 21st century Marxist revisionism? The GOP “absorbed ‘Lost Cause’ ‘politics'”? Not only is that deliberate provocative paranoid propaganda, but say, has the DNC “absorbed Noble Crusade politics”? The bottom line is this: The truth of the Civil War, which is deep, complex and fascinating, and thus worthy of constant study and debate, is being purged and replaced by a Marxist one note/one size fits all fantasy that has little to nothing to do with fact. If you pay attention to the deplorable state of the American publishing industry, you will have noticed that simultaneous to it publishing this tripe it is refusing to publish truth alongside it. In other words, it is again a Marxist behavior: Suppress freedom of speech, give the masses only the official party view, and in that way, the Lie will take hold because nothing to counter it is made available. For shame!
This review and the book itself (based upon the review and the ECW podcast) carry heavy ideological freight. What happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and what happened in numerous cities following the death of George Floyd were riots, but this review describes January 6th as an insurrection and the post-Floyd activity as protests. This is despite the fact that the Biden DOJ did not charge anyone with insurrection for January 6th and the fact that the post-Floyd activity caused over 30 deaths, numerous injuries, and billions of dollars in damages.
In the podcast, Professor Murray mentioned the “murder” of Renee Good as somehow tying into the subject of her book. It ties in, all right, but not in the way intended. Renee Good was a foot soldier in a well organized, well funded attempt to “dearrest” violators of federal law apprehended by federal law enforcement agents. Tim Walz even ruminated about using the Minnesota National Guard to somehow interfere with the federal agents enforcing federal law. I’m sorry she died, but anyone trying to turn her into a martyr better be able to explain why attempts to nullify federal law are somehow ok if it is the left doing it and why no one seemed too concerned when Antifa attacked the federal courthouse in Portland for over 70 straight days during the 2021 “summer of love” and blinded two federal security guards with lasers in the process.
When I was in fourth grade in Arlington, Virginia, almost 60 years ago, the Virginia history textbook was Lost Cause to the brim. But that was several generations ago and what replaced it is frequently leftist propaganda. There are disputes over the exact numbers, but a significant number of American high school and college students believe that white Americans invented slavery. Instead of setting up strawmen and pushing a political agenda, we should all endeavor to support the teaching of actual history. No ideology has a monopoly on truth and the current monoculture embedded among our country’s institutions is just as arrogant as the people who pushed the Lost Cause a long time ago.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for taking the time to read and review this book. It was an honor to be included among such a stellar group of historians. I’ve learned a great deal from reading it. I am sorry to see so many people dismiss the book and your review without taking any time to actually read it, but such is the state of our current culture. All the best to you.