Kevin M. Levin

Once Again, For the People in the Back Row: The South Didn't Lose the Civil War The other day I posted this photograph on Bluesky with the following comment: “The South didn’t lose the Civil War.

Once Again, For the People in the Back Row: The South Didn't Lose the Civil War 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Not at all. Enjoy the match. All the best.

We will have to agree to disagree. Thanks for the response.

I suggest you reread the post. Not all the Southern states seceded so that first sentence is false. Your football comparison doesn't work here since no one is mistaking a university for an entire state.

Thanks for the response, but I don't follow your point.

Once Again, For the People in the Back Row: The South Didn't Lose the Civil War The other day I posted this photograph on Bluesky with the following comment: “The South didn’t lose the Civil War.

Once Again, For the People in the Back Row: The South Didn't Lose the Civil War 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

National parks change prioritizes Trump birthday over days honoring Black people Free entrance days at national parks no longer include MLK Day and Juneteenth.

"The Donald Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding the president’s birthday." #NationalParks www.sfgate.com/national-par...

The Trump administration's claim that the 14th Amendment was never intended to grant citizenship "to the children of temporary visitors or illegal aliens" is very misleading given that there were few federal restrictions on immigration when the amendment was proposed through to its ratification.

A New Lens into the Archive You are in an archive. You find a document in a language you don't understand. You take a photo, input it into Gemini 3 Pro. 60 seconds later you have a transcription, transliteration, and translation

The results that @marinelives.bsky.social is getting using Gemini 3 Pro, transcribing and translating Armenian ms materials are stunning. Historians, teachers and archivists really need to be discussing where we want to be with this stuff. open.substack.com/pub/generati...

It really is surreal to unwrap your first book

From @illinoispress.bsky.social
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Read about the statewide “Latin League” baseball teams in Michigan and about celebrating La Novena in the Midwest

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I certainly understand the larger point that you are making. It's an important one about recent racial politics, but reducing the South to the Confederacy misses the point that four southern states never seceded. Large pockets of southern unionism existed throughout the war. Complexity matters.

YouTube video by The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart American “Heritage” vs. American History | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

I didn't expect to see this Jon Stewart conversation with historians @jbf1755.bsky.social and Allen Guelzo. Well worth your time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=isBC...

Thanks for this response. My concern about language is primarily about historical complexity. In other words, this is how I choose to talk about this history. One way obscures the contributions of African Americans to the story of the Civil War. The other embraces it as salient to this story.

You seem to think that the only people who count as "southern" are white. Four million African Americans were enslaved and freed in 1865 after helping to defeat the Confederacy. The point that I am making is about language. The Lost Cause demands that we think of "the South" as entirely white.

Whatever you say.

OK, but I also think contingency is important and it goes without saying that the end of slavery was a crucial moment, even in light of what was to come. Claiming that "the South" lost the Civil War obscures the freedom of 4 million southerners.

The South Didn't Lose the Civil War. The Confederacy Did. Some thoughts about how language can lead us astray.

Read this. kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/the-south-...

The South Didn't Lose the Civil War. The Confederacy Did. Some thoughts about how language can lead us astray.

Perhaps this post that I wrote will help. kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/the-south-...

For some reason, people are having difficulty understanding the point that I was trying to make here. Perhaps this will help. kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/the-south-...

Four southern states never seceded from the Union. Of the southern states that comprised the Confederacy, roughly half were enslaved. Tens of thousands of Black men fought against the Confederacy. Not to mention southern unionists. How is this 'doing the Lost Cause's job'? How absurd.

I make no assumption about whether anyone was confused. I am simply pointing out that the sign is misleading. Sorry if you have a problem with that.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the post. By the way, it's "secession" and not "succession."

What you say when you completely missed the point. LOL

Roughly half the population of the states that comprised the Confederacy were enslaved. They were as much "Southerners" as white people. Add to that the tens of thousands of white Unionists/anti-Confederates and you will begin to understand the point I am making.

The point wasn't to suggest what people should or shouldn't have done. I was simply making an observation about a photograph and what it has to say about how we understand history.

I am not here to "concede" anything. I was simply making an observation about a photograph and what it has to say about how we understand history.

I don't "prefer" anything. I was simply making an observation about a specific photograph.

Start with William Freehling's book *The South v. The South (Oxford University Press).

That's not what I said. What I am saying is that we shouldn't reduce the South to the Confederacy.

The South didn't lose the Civil War. The Confederacy lost it. Let's stop unnecessarily propping up Lost Cause nonsense intended to mask the fact that a majority of the Southern population never supported the Confederacy.