MANHATTAN — Historian and author James Loewen says the history of now the Civil War started has been twisted. Because the twisted version has become “common knowledge,” he said the affects have had a poisonous affect on race relations and politics since then. He said there’s only one cause of the Civil War: slavery. Most secessonist documents make it clear that keeping slavery was the motivation for those states that left the Union and formed the Confederacy, he said. At the end of the 19th century, many “Lost Cause” southerners began pushing the idea – which is more fashionable in popular and even historical circles — of “states rights.” States rights have served as the underpinning for racial segregation and anti-federal government agitation, he said. Loewen, the author of the best-selling “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” is featured this Sunday morning at 8:04 on Community Perspective.
Friday, Nov. 26, 3 p.m.
