SOURCE: Alexander, Thomas B. “The Dimensions of Continuity Across the Civil War.” In The Old South in the Crucible of War, edited by Harry P. Owens and James J. Cooke, pp. 81-97. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1983.

In the following excerpt, Alexander discusses political continuity and historical change that occurred over the Civil War period.

… It does not take one long to discover that not only is consensus lacking about the essence of Southernism but that one line of argument denies the existence of anything uniquely Southern and concedes only that Southern traits were exceptional, if at all, in being slight exaggerations of American traits. As for the impact of war on the course of history, it seems that almost every interpreter with an ideological ax to grind has seized upon the Civil War as a cardinal example of—needless to say—all kinds of incompatible effects. Postwar...