Through an examination of memoirs, personal papers, and postwar Confederate rituals, this book explores how white southerners adjusted to and interpreted their defeat, and analyses the cultural implications of a central event in American history. Foster argues that, contrary to southern folklore, southerners actually accepted their loss, rapidly embraced both reunion and a New South, and helped to foster sectional reconciliation and an emerging social order.

Through an examination of memoirs, personal papers, and postwar Confederate rituals, this book explores how white southerners adjusted to and interpreted their defeat, and analyses the cultural implications of a central event in American history. Foster argues that, contrary to southern folklore, southerners actually accepted their loss, rapidly embraced both reunion and a New South, and helped to foster sectional reconciliation and an emerging social order.