I was reading the book, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. The author (Stephanie Coontz) had some interesting observations on how after the war, the Northern family was held up as the ideal “American” family. They were used as the standard. She also acknowledges the attempts to ’save’ the South by remaking it. Although she uses terms like ‘remaking’ the South in order to downplay the horrors of reconstruction, she claims that the groups like the Union League were left defenseless at the hands of terrorist groups like the KKK and others in the south. She has apparently not studied Southern history, culture and writers very well. She does not recognize the strong armed jackbooted thug policies of reconstruction as terrorism for what it was.

Take a look at how the Union treated Maryland. Taking away habeus corpus, locking up elected officials, shutting down the free press, preventing their elected officials from meeting and opening fire on unarmed civilians, but since the ‘beneficent government’ did it, such acts can not be considered tyrannical or terroristic in scope. Keep in mind that the sister of Raphael Semmes was also forbidden to pray for her brother during this time. When the government removes freedom of the press, freedom of religious practice, opens fire on civilians and removes legitimate elected officials, something is wrong. That king of strong armed government intervention is terroristic. When common people try to prevent corrupt courts from taking their land or seeking objective justice and rule of law she calls such acts “terrorism”.It is clear that there are some misuses of words and twisting of meanings going on here. Without studying history a reader could easily be mislead.

Although her observations on Northern families and life are worth taking note of, her view of the South and families of the South are very distorted. She is clearly a fan of government programs and big brother government. I am sure her book will be used in colleges across the empire to confuse impressionable minds.

By pulling information from obscure writers, she paints a picture of families and traditions that is in variance with historic documentation.  Writers like Dabney, and others show very clearly some of the ideas concerning family and the roles of family in the South do not line up with her portrayal of them in her book. She continues a long line of writers and researchers demonizing the South and Christian values.From such books, students learn to question their heritage and feel shameful about the past. Such material has them questioning their own family and raising. The students learn to trust the teacher rather than their parent, since the material has surface validity and they have not been exposed to enough research to be able to counter the claims made.

Free Texas from such modern myths!

J Murrah

Books, oppression of Maryland, reconstruction, Southern values, Stephanie Coontz, Union League

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