![]() ![]() These movies fit in a long history of what, in my recent JAH article, I refer to as “the imagined reconstitution of the nation,” an imagining that privileged the sectional reunification of whites while pushing African Americans to the sidelines. As these films attest, Civil War film-making has frequently been an exercise in myth-making and obfuscation: these movies have, repeatedly, erased the central problem of slavery ignored the critical role of African American slaves and freedpeople in fighting for emancipation and portrayed Southern whites as the victims of a tyrannical Northern onslaught, both during but especially after the war had ended. ![]() Rather, my skepticism stems from a long history of bad Civil War films, a history that includes truly atrocious movies like Birth of a Nation, Gone With the Wind, and Gods and Generals. Not out of any disrespect toward the excellent historical scholarship behind the film, including Victoria Bynum’s superb book by the same name which helped inspire filmmaker Gary Ross’ initial interest. I’ll confess: I was fully prepared to be disappointed with the recently-released Free State of Jones. Her article, “Reunion and Reconciliation, Reviewed and Reconsidered” appears in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of American History. She is the author of Gender and the Sectional Conflict. Nina Silber is professor of history at Boston University and focuses on issues related to the US Civil War, historical memory, and gender in the Civil War era. ![]()
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