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#34120 06/30/01 12:28 AM
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The Civil War

The War Between the States is one off the more popular titles for this conflict, usually favored by Southerners and Southern re-enacters over The Civil War . I just visited friends in Columbia, South Carolina recently (the heart of the Old Confederacy) and toured the Sate Confederate Museum and other historical sites. And some folks are still a mite sensitve down there about Gen. Sherman's troops burning down the town and all that. You don't say The Civil War around there...it's always The War Between The States.


#34121 06/30/01 02:54 AM
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And some folks are still a mite sensitve down there about Gen. Sherman's troops burning down the town and all that.

And I guess they don't name their kids Tecumseh either.


#34122 06/30/01 04:50 AM
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Brandon,

Surely you jest. I was educated in Atlanta and never once heard the term "War of Northern Aggression" except as a joke. And that goes for you, too, Faldage

If I may be permitted a Helen-of-Troy aside: there's a statue of Sherman on a horse at the *south entrance to Central Park. Alongside him is a woman on foot (I don't think she is 'Winged Victory', but Helen will correct me if I'm wrong). Once, while I was guiding a group a tourists there, one of the women (from Georgia, yes) remarked: "Ain't that just like a Yankee! Making the lady walk!"


#34123 06/30/01 09:24 AM
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The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was called the War of Liberation by the National Catholic (read "fascist") side, both during the conflict itself and during the 40 years of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. I *suppose the Republican factions called it a civil war, which is the current way of referring to it, although one can still sporadically hear "War of Liberation" coming from political or social figures that are still ideologically aligned with the extreme right-wing.

What I find interesting about this is that in international law a "civil war" is understood to mean that which happens within the boundaries of one country as opposed to internationally, but a "war of liberation" is understood to mean a fight against foreign occupation. There was no foreign occupation in 1936 Spain, not even an issue of geographical dispute within the boundaries of the country. It was only an ideological affair. So who/what was the "liberation" from?

Rhetoric is a good instrument of propaganda.



#34124 06/30/01 03:43 PM
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Brandon, surely you jest about the "War of Northern Aggression"

AnnaS, I'm afraid I don't jest (as far as I understand it). A friend of mine teaches in Cherokee County (just north of Atlanta and east, I think, of Marietta). As a member of the curriculum and accreditation board, she works on choosing and ordering textbooks for the district. According to her, the list of history textbooks is chosen based on the criterion of "Civil War" perspective, namely, the books' support of the Northern Aggression perspective. But, let me reiterate, I was not educated in Georgia and share this purely second-hand (but from whom I consider a reliable source). Anyone currently a resident of the Deep South who can ask a fourth-grader?




#34125 06/30/01 04:57 PM
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The Spanish Civil War

Well, the fascists were the ones rebelling, so you could say that they were liberated from a fair republican form of government. Those aristocrats wanted to keep the fray subdued. In any historical and democratic terms it wasn't liberating at all because the victory expanded the Hitler/Mussolini fascist cause. I did a research paper on the Spanish Civil War this year and one of my sources quoted a veteran of the volunteer Abraham Lincoln brigade as saying that if the democratic nations had gotten involved and supported the republicans as much as Hitler and Mussolini supported the Nationalists then World War 2 probably would have never happened. I tend to think that if they had gotten involved the Spanish Civil War would have turned into World War 2.


#34126 06/30/01 06:30 PM
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AnnaS was educated in Atlanta and never once heard the term "War of Northern Aggression" except as a joke. And that goes for me, too

Well, the last time I heard it referred to as the War of Northern Aggression was in the tale I related above and that was from the lips of the woman from Atlanta.


#34127 06/30/01 07:22 PM
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The history books do not mention it, but a very potent source of Southern male motivation to fight was the threat of loss of a source of pleasure that DNA evidence suggests President Jefferson indulged in.


#34128 06/30/01 07:28 PM
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I think for most of the males fighting for the South indulging in that source of pleasure would have been considered a violation of property rights.


#34129 06/30/01 07:42 PM
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Brandon, until I move to NYS I am currently a resident of Georgia and will do due research. My mother is a retired Atlanta schooteacher and my sister is a kindergarten teacher *up there near Cherokee County. I'll check this out, and thanks for pointing it out! [consternation e]

Faldage,


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