This was particularly interesting for me since I recently read through Wilson's Patriotic Gore myself, this winter, for the first time since the 80's. Like Professor Blight, I too was surprised by the volume, fascinated but shocked, shocked in a negative way. Wilson dismisses out of hand that there was any concern about slavery outside the CSA states, and the small number of whackos who were concerned about abolition had no effect on anything. I.e. he adhered lock stock and aim to the revisionist War of Northern Agression stance, that was still in place in 1962, when the book came out as part of the Civil War centennial. And then there were the women Wilson paid no attention to, as writers, activists and actors in this vast event, as well as his unexamined repetition that Grant was a drunk so how did he manage to outgeneral the great gentleman Robert E. Lee, blahblahblah.
What Blight did was go into the reasons why Wilson composed and structured Patriotic Gore as he did.
Much worth reading, you can find "Patriotic Gore is Not Really Much Like Any Other Book by Anyone Else," on Slatedotcom.
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