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The party of Lincoln? American Civil War memory, civil rights, and the Republican Party, 1960-68

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Version 2 2024-03-07, 07:27
Version 1 2023-06-10, 06:12
thesis
posted on 2024-03-07, 07:27 authored by Timothy Charles GalsworthyTimothy Charles Galsworthy

This thesis analyses the relationships between the Republican Party and American Civil War memory between 1960 and 1968. Sitting at the intersection of several historiographical fields, it argues that historians of conservatism, Civil War memory, and the Republican Party have overlooked the functional importance of Civil War memory in the development of civil rights-era Republicanism. This is an intra-party and inter-party study. It examines how rival Republican factions – most notably southern conservatives, Black and white progressives, and mainstream politicians – used Civil War memories instrumentally to support, oppose, and ultimately shape the GOP’s transformation into a racially conservative party. Republicans utilised competing and contested historical references to fight internal battles over their party’s positions on civil rights, African Americans, and the white South, and to mobilise contrasting voters in the wider population. Adopting theoretical approaches from memory studies scholars, this dissertation analyses how Republicans employed Civil War memories in utilitarian ways for presentist purposes.

This thesis considers the importance of Civil War memory in Republican election campaigns, internal debates, and public outreach. Examining an array of primary source materials – including public speeches, correspondence, and party platforms – it demonstrates that historical references had a transformative effect on the Republican Party, and US politics more broadly. This dissertation argues that the functional use of Civil War memories by politicians, party activists, and ordinary Americans, must be central to our understanding of civil rights-era political realignments. The GOP’s relationship with Civil War memory remains a pertinent issue in the 21st century. This thesis offers the historical account to explain how insurrectionists on 6 January 2021 could carry the Confederate battle flag into the US Capitol in support of a Republican president, a representative of the so-called “Party of Lincoln.”

History

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  • Published version

Pages

208

Department affiliated with

  • History Theses

Qualification level

  • doctoral

Qualification name

  • phd

Language

  • eng

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Supervisor

Robert Cook and Tom Adam Davies

Legacy Posted Date

2023-02-07

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