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Ask Americans about why Southern states ceded in 1861 to form the Confederate States of America, and chances are, they will describe it as a battle over states’ rights. That’s what author and historian James Loewen has found in his travels across the country. But in delving into the actual documents of the time, Loewen shows that the cessation of 11 Southern states centered on the institution of slavery. In his new book The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The “Great Truth” About the “Lost Cause,” Loewen sets the historical record straight about a time in American history that is often invoked by conservatives today. Nearly 150 years after the Civil War he makes the definitive case that cessation and the Confederacy were about preserving slavery and white supremacy. To most African Americans this is an obvious fact, eliciting repulsion over symbols of the Confederacy that still persist in many parts of the South*. But with increasingly hysterical right wing factions that hold the idea of the Confederacy dear while expressing fears of a takeover of Big Government, a distorted history over States’ rights has become a convenient concept.

GUEST: James Loewen, sociologist and best-selling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. His other books include Sundown Towns, The Truth About Columbus, and Teaching What Really Happened. His latest book is The Confederate and Neoconfederate Reader: The “Great Truth” about the “Lost Cause.”

*CORRECTION: According to Loewen, African Americans get it wrong on the real reasons for the Confederacy in the same numbers as Whites.

Read more about James Loewen on his website: sundown.afro.illinois.edu