I: Confederate Flag 1. "Emblem of a Separate and Independent Nation" 2. "The War-Torn Cross" 3. "Unfurl the Old Flag" 4. "A Harmless and Rather Amusing Gesture" II: Rebel Flag 5. "The Shadow of States' Rights" 6. "Keep Your Eyes on those Confederate Flags" 7. "Symbol of the White Race and White Supremacy" 8. "The Perverted Banner" III: Flag Wars 9. "Vindication of the Cause" 10. "The Bitterest Battleground" 11. "They Talk about Diversity, They're Gonna Get It" 12. "What We Stood For, Will Stand For, and Will Fight For" 13. "You Can't Erase History" Epilogue: The Second American Flag Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Index
Few emblems in American history have provoked stronger passions than the battle flag of the vanquished Confederacy. To some it symbolizes honor and independence; to others, hatred and slavery. This highly charged icon has finally found the fair and fact-based treatment it so desperately needs. John Coski probes every aspect of the flag's complex history, from Civil War to Civil Rights, from rebel icon to NASCAR kitsch. As readable as it is incisive, The Confederate Battle Flag shows how reactions to the banner have revealed fault lines in our culture from Appomattox to the present day. -- Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic At last we have a dispassionate history of that passionate symbol, the Confederate battle flag. John Coski has dispelled myths held by both supporters and opponents of the public display of the flag. Blending cultural history and the history of memory in a lucid manner, he has written a definitive account of the numerous 'flag wars' in both South and North during the past century and more. -- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era This book is a sorely-needed and unique achievement--a deeply researched, scholarly treatment of the Confederate battle flag and its many meanings over time. With an engaging writing style fully accessible to general readers, with international sweep, and with great sensitivity, Coski brilliantly shows that the battle flag is the 'second American flag,' fraught with both racism and endless popular uses across borders that no one can expect to control. -- David W. Blight, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory This splendid book is more than timely--it's long overdue. Coski shows how a flag originally designed to avoid confusion has become a sort of Rorschach blot. It still identifies partisans, but often they seem to be fighting different wars. Whatever the flag means to you (valor, bigotry, and boogie-till-you-puke are just three of the possibilities) you'll learn something here. -- John Shelton Reed, co-author of 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South
John M. Coski is Historian and Library Director at The Museum of the Confederacy.
Few emblems in American history have provoked stronger passions
than the battle flag of the vanquished Confederacy. To some it
symbolizes honor and independence; to others, hatred and slavery.
This highly charged icon has finally found the fair and fact-based
treatment it so desperately needs. John Coski probes every aspect
of the flag's complex history, from Civil War to Civil Rights, from
rebel icon to NASCAR kitsch. As readable as it is incisive, The
Confederate Battle Flag shows how reactions to the banner have
revealed fault lines in our culture from Appomattox to the present
day.
*Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic*
At last we have a dispassionate history of that passionate symbol,
the Confederate battle flag. John Coski has dispelled myths held by
both supporters and opponents of the public display of the flag.
Blending cultural history and the history of memory in a lucid
manner, he has written a definitive account of the numerous 'flag
wars' in both South and North during the past century and more.
*James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil
War Era*
This book is a sorely-needed and unique achievement--a deeply
researched, scholarly treatment of the Confederate battle flag and
its many meanings over time. With an engaging writing style fully
accessible to general readers, with international sweep, and with
great sensitivity, Coski brilliantly shows that the battle flag is
the 'second American flag,' fraught with both racism and endless
popular uses across borders that no one can expect to control.
*David W. Blight, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in
American Memory*
This splendid book is more than timely--it's long overdue. Coski
shows how a flag originally designed to avoid confusion has become
a sort of Rorschach blot. It still identifies partisans, but often
they seem to be fighting different wars. Whatever the flag means to
you (valor, bigotry, and boogie-till-you-puke are just three of the
possibilities) you'll learn something here.
*John Shelton Reed, co-author of 1001 Things Everyone Should
Know About the South*
Coski presents a cogent history of the Confederate flag and the
controversies surrounding it in the post-Civil War era...While some
see it as emblematic of racism, to others it represents historic
tradition.
*Library Journal*
In his comprehensive new book, John M. Coski chronicles the rich
history of the so-called second American flag...[He passes] along a
plethora of surprising stories, anecdotes, economic statistics, and
editorial quotations regarding the flag. As a result, Mr. Coski's
book is ultimately worth reading. Mr. Coski's meticulously
researched book boils down to a simple truth: The Confederate flag
means different things to different people.
*New York Sun*
John Coski...has given us the first documented consideration of the
dispute over the appropriate use of what he calls 'the second
American flag,' and he begins by dispelling a number of historical
misconceptions about its origins and identity.
*Weekly Standard*
In his richly detailed book The Confederate Battle Flag, John M.
Coski calls that very familiar symbol of the Old South 'America's
most embattled emblem' and he is no doubt right. Is there any icon
of the American past more beloved and at the same time reviled than
the star-studded diagonal blue cross against a red background...Mr.
Coski's book is not just about recent debates over the flag. It is
about its whole history.
*Washington Times*
No symbol in the past few decades has been more divisive than the
Confederate battle flag. In his important new book, The Confederate
Battle Flag, John M. Coski shows how it got that way. The battle
flag, though not the official banner of the Confederacy, emerged
over the course of the war as the sentimental favorite among
Confederate soldiers and civilians alike. Coski takes the story
forward from there, but his most important contribution is his
recounting of the tumultuous story of the flag in the second half
of the 20th century, when the civil rights movement emerged,
setting loose a variety of groups that made competing claims over
the meaning of the flag--and the meaning of the war...Coski's book
will speak to the flag's opponents as well as its defenders, but
his most inspired message is aimed at those cheerleaders who insist
that the flag has one, unchanging, fundamentally benign meaning. He
shows that the history of the flag is simply too complicated for
anybody to reach such simplistic conclusions...The depth and
breadth of his research give his book real authority, and future
disputants on both sides will have to reckon with his clear,
reliable conclusions.
*Washington Post Book World*
John M. Coski's history, The Confederate Battle Flag, brings some
needed rationality to a debate driven by the raw emotion of soul
injury.
*New York Times Book Review*
If you'd like to dazzle your friends at the next cookout with what
you know about the much-misunderstood Confederate flag, Coski's
book is for you...Go ahead. Bring up the subject of the flag and
then stand back. But if you have Coski's book under your arm, you
might be able to turn the debate into something more than just
finger-pointing.
*Washington Post*
Whether you love or hate the flag, after reading Coski you will
love it or hate it in a different way.
*Savannah Morning News*
A book that explains its history has been long needed, and now John
M. Coski has written a very good one which everyone on both sides
of the controversy over the flag should read and appreciate. Coski
provides a well-researched, clearly presented, and most important
of all, scrupulously fair account of the history of the battle flag
and the controversies surrounding it, one that avoids polemics and
strives to be true to the historical record. The Confederate Battle
Flag is a splendid example of how a careful scholar can contribute
to an important public debate.
*Civil War Book Review*
This is a solid and well-researched book. Coski's work is very much
in the spirit of...David Blight's Race and Reunion. It is another
excellent look at the history of Confederate memory.
*Southern Historian*
John M. Coski has given us a well-researched, clearly written
history of the Confederate battle flag and how it became "America's
most embattled emblem."...From Mississippi to Georgia to South
Carolina to Alabama and well beyond, Coski provides a meticulous
account of the flag's rapid installation as an institutionalized
emblem of recalcitrant racism and defiance of federal
authority.
*Journal of American History*
John M. Coski has written the first full published assessment of
the changing role played by the Confederate battle flag in American
history. It is a thoughtful, methodical account of how the starred
blue diagonal Cross of St. Andrew on a red field eventually came to
be regarded as the preeminent symbol of the would-be southern
nation...Coski argues convincingly that use of the emblem was
relatively infrequent and uncontroversial until it was adopted in
semiofficial fashion by the 1948 Dixiecrat convention in
Birmingham, Alabama. Thereafter the battle flag was associated
closely in the public mind with the fight against integration--a
linkage responsible for the so-called flag wars of recent years,
the diversity and complexity of which Coski details with admirable
clarity and fair-mindedness.
*Journal of Southern History*
The St. Andrew's cross battle flag--a star-studded blue diagonal
cross on a red field--continues to this day to stir fierce
emotions. In this deeply researched, dispassionately argued, and
ultimately wise book, John M. Coski provides a careful history of
that flag, its uses, abuses, and meanings...As the nation continues
to debate the meaning of the Civil War, The Confederate Battle Flag
provides badly needed historical and ethical clarity about one of
the most provocative symbols of that war.
*Civil War History Journal*
Coski does not move from a survey of "the modern debate" (which he
shows to be several debates) into a discussion of the aspects
calling for contextualization and analysis. Instead, he provides a
biography of the battle flag from 1861 to the present. He carefully
examines the claims about its history that have been sharply
contested over the last fifteen years, but his narrative is most
valuable for the wider perspective it offers in tracing the path by
which the Confederate battle flag became a symbol prominent enough
to sustain such vigorous controversies...This story provides a
fresh background to the recent "flag wars" that Coski ably recounts
in his final section. As he recognizes, these contests have taken a
variety of forms that might be grouped into two basic categories.
The first set has concerned the rights of individuals to display
the emblem in schools or on license plates or in other regulated
forums. The second set has revolved around governmental rather than
individual expression, particularly in state flags or on statehouse
grounds or at public schools and colleges...By moving analysis of
the flag debates beyond the terms chosen by its participants, Coski
achieves a stimulating success in his aim to help readers
understand the controversies.
*South Carolina Historical Magazine*
The battle flag is enigmatic, its history has been clouded by
political debate, and it is often referred to, erroneously, as the
"Stars and Bars." John M. Coski's analysis of the flag's history,
its uses, and its various meanings, therefore, is both welcome and
needed.
*American Historical Review*
Utilizing contemporary sources through newspapers and magazine
articles, as well as primary sources such as diaries, Coski has
produced a fascinating work delivered with a remarkable absence of
passion involving a topic that generates seemingly little
else...Coski has performed a valuable service in shining a
dispassionate and informing light on the topic.
*H-Net Online*
Few emblems in American history have provoked stronger passions
than the battle flag of the vanquished Confederacy. To some it
symbolizes honor and independence; to others, hatred and slavery.
This highly charged icon has finally found the fair and fact-based
treatment it so desperately needs. John Coski probes every aspect
of the flag's complex history, from Civil War to Civil Rights, from
rebel icon to NASCAR kitsch. As readable as it is incisive, The
Confederate Battle Flag shows how reactions to the banner have
revealed fault lines in our culture from Appomattox to the present
day. -- Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the
Attic
At last we have a dispassionate history of that passionate symbol,
the Confederate battle flag. John Coski has dispelled myths held by
both supporters and opponents of the public display of the flag.
Blending cultural history and the history of memory in a lucid
manner, he has written a definitive account of the numerous 'flag
wars' in both South and North during the past century and more. --
James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil
War Era
This book is a sorely-needed and unique achievement--a deeply
researched, scholarly treatment of the Confederate battle flag and
its many meanings over time. With an engaging writing style fully
accessible to general readers, with international sweep, and with
great sensitivity, Coski brilliantly shows that the battle flag is
the 'second American flag,' fraught with both racism and endless
popular uses across borders that no one can expect to control. --
David W. Blight, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in
American Memory
This splendid book is more than timely--it's long overdue. Coski
shows how a flag originally designed to avoid confusion has become
a sort of Rorschach blot. It still identifies partisans, but often
they seem to be fighting different wars. Whatever the flag means to
you (valor, bigotry, and boogie-till-you-puke are just three of the
possibilities) you'll learn something here. -- John Shelton Reed,
co-author of 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the
South
Coski presents a cogent history of the Confederate flag and the
controversies surrounding it in the post-Civil War era...While some
see it as emblematic of racism, to others it represents historic
tradition. -- Grant A. Fredericksen * Library Journal *
In his comprehensive new book, John M. Coski chronicles the rich
history of the so-called second American flag...[He passes] along a
plethora of surprising stories, anecdotes, economic statistics, and
editorial quotations regarding the flag. As a result, Mr. Coski's
book is ultimately worth reading. Mr. Coski's meticulously
researched book boils down to a simple truth: The Confederate flag
means different things to different people. -- Felix Gillette * New
York Sun *
John Coski...has given us the first documented consideration of the
dispute over the appropriate use of what he calls 'the second
American flag,' and he begins by dispelling a number of historical
misconceptions about its origins and identity. -- Edwin M. Yoder
Jr. * Weekly Standard *
In his richly detailed book The Confederate Battle Flag,
John M. Coski calls that very familiar symbol of the Old South
'America's most embattled emblem' and he is no doubt right. Is
there any icon of the American past more beloved and at the same
time reviled than the star-studded diagonal blue cross against a
red background...Mr. Coski's book is not just about recent debates
over the flag. It is about its whole history. -- Steve Goode *
Washington Times *
No symbol in the past few decades has been more divisive than the
Confederate battle flag. In his important new book, The
Confederate Battle Flag, John M. Coski shows how it got that
way. The battle flag, though not the official banner of the
Confederacy, emerged over the course of the war as the sentimental
favorite among Confederate soldiers and civilians alike. Coski
takes the story forward from there, but his most important
contribution is his recounting of the tumultuous story of the flag
in the second half of the 20th century, when the civil rights
movement emerged, setting loose a variety of groups that made
competing claims over the meaning of the flag--and the meaning of
the war...Coski's book will speak to the flag's opponents as well
as its defenders, but his most inspired message is aimed at those
cheerleaders who insist that the flag has one, unchanging,
fundamentally benign meaning. He shows that the history of the flag
is simply too complicated for anybody to reach such simplistic
conclusions...The depth and breadth of his research give his book
real authority, and future disputants on both sides will have to
reckon with his clear, reliable conclusions. -- Joseph Crespino *
Washington Post Book World *
John M. Coski's history, The Confederate Battle Flag, brings
some needed rationality to a debate driven by the raw emotion of
soul injury. -- Diane McWhorter * New York Times Book Review *
If you'd like to dazzle your friends at the next cookout with what
you know about the much-misunderstood Confederate flag, Coski's
book is for you...Go ahead. Bring up the subject of the flag and
then stand back. But if you have Coski's book under your arm, you
might be able to turn the debate into something more than just
finger-pointing. -- Linda Wheeler * Washington Post *
Whether you love or hate the flag, after reading Coski you will
love it or hate it in a different way. -- Theo Lippman Jr. *
Savannah Morning News *
A book that explains its history has been long needed, and now John
M. Coski has written a very good one which everyone on both sides
of the controversy over the flag should read and appreciate. Coski
provides a well-researched, clearly presented, and most important
of all, scrupulously fair account of the history of the battle flag
and the controversies surrounding it, one that avoids polemics and
strives to be true to the historical record. The Confederate
Battle Flag is a splendid example of how a careful scholar can
contribute to an important public debate. -- Gaines M. Foster *
Civil War Book Review *
This is a solid and well-researched book. Coski's work is very much
in the spirit of...David Blight's Race and Reunion. It is
another excellent look at the history of Confederate memory. --
Richard R. Hourigan III * Southern Historian *
John M. Coski has given us a well-researched, clearly written
history of the Confederate battle flag and how it became "America's
most embattled emblem."...From Mississippi to Georgia to South
Carolina to Alabama and well beyond, Coski provides a meticulous
account of the flag's rapid installation as an institutionalized
emblem of recalcitrant racism and defiance of federal authority. --
James C. Cobb * Journal of American History *
John M. Coski has written the first full published assessment of
the changing role played by the Confederate battle flag in American
history. It is a thoughtful, methodical account of how the starred
blue diagonal Cross of St. Andrew on a red field eventually came to
be regarded as the preeminent symbol of the would-be southern
nation...Coski argues convincingly that use of the emblem was
relatively infrequent and uncontroversial until it was adopted in
semiofficial fashion by the 1948 Dixiecrat convention in
Birmingham, Alabama. Thereafter the battle flag was associated
closely in the public mind with the fight against integration--a
linkage responsible for the so-called flag wars of recent years,
the diversity and complexity of which Coski details with admirable
clarity and fair-mindedness. -- Robert Cook, * Journal of Southern
History *
The St. Andrew's cross battle flag--a star-studded blue diagonal
cross on a red field--continues to this day to stir fierce
emotions. In this deeply researched, dispassionately argued, and
ultimately wise book, John M. Coski provides a careful history of
that flag, its uses, abuses, and meanings...As the nation continues
to debate the meaning of the Civil War, The Confederate Battle
Flag provides badly needed historical and ethical clarity about
one of the most provocative symbols of that war. -- James L. Roark
* Civil War History Journal *
Coski does not move from a survey of "the modern debate" (which he
shows to be several debates) into a discussion of the aspects
calling for contextualization and analysis. Instead, he provides a
biography of the battle flag from 1861 to the present. He carefully
examines the claims about its history that have been sharply
contested over the last fifteen years, but his narrative is most
valuable for the wider perspective it offers in tracing the path by
which the Confederate battle flag became a symbol prominent enough
to sustain such vigorous controversies...This story provides a
fresh background to the recent "flag wars" that Coski ably recounts
in his final section. As he recognizes, these contests have taken a
variety of forms that might be grouped into two basic categories.
The first set has concerned the rights of individuals to display
the emblem in schools or on license plates or in other regulated
forums. The second set has revolved around governmental rather than
individual expression, particularly in state flags or on statehouse
grounds or at public schools and colleges...By moving analysis of
the flag debates beyond the terms chosen by its participants, Coski
achieves a stimulating success in his aim to help readers
understand the controversies. -- Thomas J. Brown * South Carolina
Historical Magazine *
The battle flag is enigmatic, its history has been clouded by
political debate, and it is often referred to, erroneously, as the
"Stars and Bars." John M. Coski's analysis of the flag's history,
its uses, and its various meanings, therefore, is both welcome and
needed. -- Karen L. Cox * American Historical Review *
Utilizing contemporary sources through newspapers and magazine
articles, as well as primary sources such as diaries, Coski has
produced a fascinating work delivered with a remarkable absence of
passion involving a topic that generates seemingly little
else...Coski has performed a valuable service in shining a
dispassionate and informing light on the topic. -- Robert Sampson *
H-Net Online *
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