Corporations that offer to give donations to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. UPDATE: Article published that is going to be mailed to corporations that donate to the SCV

These are the texts at the http://scv.we-care.com, about supporting the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

We at the Sons of Confederate Veterans have a trusted partnership with We-Care.com. Your purchase through this site helps us continue the work of preserving and teaching American History and the truth of the Confederate Veteran.

And:

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Your purchase through this site helps Sons of Confederate Veterans preserve the history and legacy of the heroes who fought for the Confederacy so that future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause.

These are the companies we are going to write first. Perhaps in installments or all at once for their offering donations to the SCV. The text of the letter we are going to send is at a previous blog posting. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/06/letter-to-ceos-of-corporations-that.html. We are going to have a status EXCEL sheet online at some point in the project to track correspondence with them. The dossier about the SCV is still with my editor. Some surprising organizations willing to donate to the SCV are Sesame Street, PBS Kids Shop, and PBS.

The following article will be printed out and mailed to the corporatiosn that donate to the SCV.
http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

UPDATE: The campaign was a complete success. Article on campaign here:
http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html

So here are the companies: 

Company	Address	Head	Title
Adidas	adidas AG , Adi-Dassler-Strasse 1, 91074 Herzogenaurach, Germany	Herbert Hainer	CEO
Aeropostale	22nd Floor, 112 West 34th Street, NEW YORK, NY 10120	Thomas P. Johnson	CEO
Alamo Rent A Car	600 Corporate Park Drive, St. Louis, MO USA 63105	William Lobeck	President & CEO
Anthropologie	5000 South Broad Street, Building 10 Philadelphia PA 19112	David W. McCreight	CEO
Apple Store	1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014	Timothy D. Cook	CEO
AT&T Wireless	208 South Akard Street Dallas, TX 75202	Ralph de la Vega	President & CEO
Banana Republic	Two Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94105 USA	Jack Calhoun	Global President
Barneys New York	575 5th Ave, New York, NY 10017	Mark Lee	CEO
Bed Bath & Beyond	650 Liberty Ave. Union NJ 07083	Steven H. Temares	CEO
Bloomingdale's	1000 3rd Ave. New York NY 10022	Michael Gould	CEO
Converse	One High St. North Andover MA 01845	Jim Calhoun	CEO
DKNY	550 7th Ave. New York NY 10018	Mark Weber	CEO
ESPNShop.com	Espn Plaza. 935 Middle Street, Bristol, CT 06010, United States	John D. Skipper	President
Footlocker	112 West 34th Street, New York, New York 10120	Ken C. Hicks	CEO
Fossil Group Inc.	901 S Central Expy, Richardson, TX 75080	Kosta N. Kartsotis	Chairman of the Board & CEO
Gay.com	10990 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, PENTHOUSE ,   LOS ANGELES, CA 90024	Paul Colichman	CEO
Ghiradelli Chocolate Company	1111 139th Avenue, San Leandro, CA 94578-263	Marty Thompson	CEO
Giorgio Armani Beauty	114 5th Ave # 17, New York, NY 10011	Graziano de Boni	CEO
Godiva Chocolatier Inc.	333 W 34th St., New York, NY, 10001 United States	James A. Goldman	CEO
Guess? Inc.	1444 South Alameda Street Los Angeles, CA 90021	Paul Marciano	CEO
Jelly Belly	1 Jelly Belly Ln, Fairfield, CA 94534	Robert Simpson Jr.	President and Chief Operating Officer
Jessica Simpson		Jessica Simpson
Jos. A. Bank
Lancome Paris, L'Oreal	L’Oréal USA, 575 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA	Jean Paul Agon	CEO
Lindt Chocolate, Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Spruengli AG	Lindt & Sprüngli (International) AG, Seestrasse 204, CH-8802 Kilchberg, Switzerland	Ernst Tanner	Chairman of the Board & CEO
Macy's	Macy's Inc., 7 West Seventh Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202	Terry J. Lundgren	CEO
NASCAR Superstore	1 Daytona Blvd, Daytona Beach, FL 32114	Brian France	CEO
Nautica	40 W. 57th St., New York, NY, 10019 United States	David Chu	CEO
NFL	345 Park Ave., New York, NY 10154	Roger Goodell	CEO
Nordstrom	1617 6th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101, United States	Blake W. Nordstrom	CEO
Old Navy
Oscar de la Renta	550 Seventh Avenue New York NY 10018	Oscar de la Renta	Owner
PBS KIDS Shop	Public Broadcasting Service, 2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202	Paula A. Kerger	President & CEO
Ralph Lauren	650 Madison Ave C1, New York, NY 10022	Ralph Lauren	Chairman of the Board & CEO
Reebok	1895 J W Foster Blvd, Canton, MA 02021	Uli Becker	CEO
Saks Fifth Avenue	362 9th Avenue, New York, 10001	Stephen I. Sadove	CEO
Sesame Street	1 Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY, 10023 United States	H. Melvin Ming	CEO
Shops PBS	Public Broadcasting Service, 2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202	Paula A. Kerger	President & CEO
Sports Authority	1050 W Hampden Ave, Englewood, CO 80110	Darrell Webb	CEO
Starbucks	Starbucks Corporation, 2401 Utah Ave S., Seattle, WA 98134	Howard Schultz	CEO
Theory	38 Gansevoort Street New York, New York 10014	Andrew Rosen	CEO
True Religion Apparel Inc.	2263 E. Vernon Ave., Vernon, CA, 90058 United States	Lynne Koplin	President
Virgin Atlantic Airways	50 Brook Green, The School House, London,  W6 7RR, United Kingdom	Sir Richard C. Branson	President
Walmart	702 SW 8th St, Bentonville, AR 72716	Mike Duke	CEO
Walgreens	200 Wilmot Rd, Deerfield, IL 60015	Gregory D Wasson	CEO
Wedgwood Waterford PLC	Embassy House Herbert Park La, Ballsbridge, Dublin,  4, Ireland	David W. Sculley	CEO
Urban Outfitters	Urban Outfitters, Inc., 5000 South Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19112-1495	Richard Hayne	President & CEO

Neo-Confederate William Murchison leads attack on Texas universities for teaching about race, gender, and class.

In The American Conservative, a paleoconservative magazine, in their March/April 2013 issue there is an article on pages 24-27 by William Murchison titled, "What Texas Won't Teach: U.S. history takes a back seat to race, class, and gender." The article in summary complains that the Texas university professors are 60s radicals who are teaching too much about race, class and gender and neglecting U.S. history.

The article is part of a campaign by a reactionary group called the National Association of Scholars (NAS)  to change the teaching of history in the Texas universities and the article is about a report they issued titled, "Are Race, Class, and Gender Dominating American History?"

I won't go through all the failings of the Murchison article. One key point is that the article doesn't say whether the universities in question still offer the general survey classes on American history. I checked online the Texas A&M course catalog and they do offer a general U.S. history class. What appears to be happening is that additional courses are being offered on various topics that the NAS doesn't like.  There is a requirement in Texas that you have to take a certain amount of classes in American history and at the universities is can be satisfied by specialty classes. as well as general classes. Some of the classes that Murchison feels are not worthy of satisfying a general requirement in American history: "History of Mexican Americans in the U.S.," "Black Power Movement," "The United States and Africa."

To me this is a good thing. A lot of people's ideas of what a class in history is like is based on their unfortunate experiences in the teaching of history in high school, usually by a person who is also the coach of some sport. History is intertwined and to study any history is to lead to other historical topics. I think to require students to go to a class in which they feel before hand they aren't going to like could be a disincentive to learning. Though when I was in college many students commented that despite their expectations the American history classes was very interesting and not like their high school classes.

The topics of history are intertwined and teaching a specialty classes can be a door to other topics in history. Most importantly have students get into history and realize it can be interesting and that will hopefully lead to further study or just reading after they graduate.

Professors are classified into those who have high reading assignments in the topics of race, class, and gender with the acronym RCG. How much is high isn't defined. It seems to me this needs to be clarified. This is supposed to be a result because they are some type of 60s radicals.

The bio note for the article says that, "William Murchison is a nationally syndicated columnist and longtime commentator on politics, religion, and society."

What the bio note doesn't tell you is that William Murchison was a long time contributor to Southern Partisan, was once on the Texas board for the League of the South, and in the Southern Partisan was interviewed about the launch of a magazine titled Texas Republic, and is a contributor to Chronicles Magazine, another hot bed of paleoconservatives and neo-Confederates.

What Murchison's complaint is is that the Texas universities don't teach the history that was taught in Texas when he was in college in the "early '60s." This is of course  before the Modern Civil Rights Era and the subsequent re-examination of how history is taught.

Of course, Murchison, a person who supported Texas Republic magazine would not like any history classes on Mexican Americans. Of course, Murchison, a contributor to Chronicles Magazine and Southern Partisan magazine wouldn't like teaching on race, class and gender when you think the Confederacy was great and you are a neo-Confederate.

American Conservative knows who Murchison is and it is disingenuous of them not to mention his neo-Confederate origins. Then again American Conservative is full of individuals who are involved with the neo-Confederate movement or racist magazines like Chronicles Magazine.

The American Conservative is published by The American Ideas Institute, whose president is Wick Allison, who is the publisher of D Magazine for the city of Dallas. (How long will Dallas tolerate having reactionary crazies influence their city?)

The real agenda of many Texas conservatives is to attempt a roll back of civil rights in regards to race, women, and sexual orientation and this is their new attempt.

Paper on Juneteenth I wrote in 1994

This is my observance for Juneteenth.  I wrote this paper in 1994. I did some editing of it, but largely it is unchanged. Originally it was a typed manuscript, and later OCR'ed into a file and made into a .html file. Now it is a PDF. It is hard for me to imagine anymore writing without computers.

www.templeofdemocracy.com/Juneteenth.pdf

I ask everyone to do something to mark an observance of June 19th. Just a tweet or a blog or read a book related to slavery and freedom, or something on June 19th.

Play on Cinco de Mayo, the Civil War, and the Confederacy

There is a play in California explaining the relationship between Cinco de Mayo, the Civil War, and the Confederacy. It is based on Hayes-Bautista's book on Cinco de Mayo.

The article on the play is here:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_23462186/cinco-de-mayo-its-connection-california-explored-sunday

In California there have been museum exhibitions and other events explaining Cinco de Mayo to the public. It isn't going to be long before there is a whole new demographic opposed to the Confederacy.

My blog on my visit to a museum exhibition on Cinco de Mayo and the Confederacy is here:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/09/cinco-de-mayo-civil-war-exhibit-pictures.html#.UbxHcvmsiSo

Also, I encourage readers to search the blog with the term "Cinco."

Letter to CEOs of corporations that support the Sons of Confederate Veterans, updated. UPDATE: Article that will be mailed to CEOs has been published

The following is the letter we are going to write corporations who support the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The dossier on the SCV isn't yet online. I haven't made a final selections of which corporations I am going to write first. When I do I will announce it in this blog.

Companies who support the SCV make a mockery of their anti-discrimination policies that they have.

At the website you will see the following explanation:

Your purchase through this site helps Sons of Confederate Veterans preserve the history and legacy of the heroes who fought for the Confederacy so that future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause.

The following is the letter: 

 DATE

 Edward H. Sebesta

 Address

President

Company

Address

Dear XXX:

Please find enclosed a printout from http://scv.we-care.com/ where your company offers a benefit to both the organization the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and its members. It is disappointing to see that your company is aiding the SCV, a neo-Confederate organization that is both extremist and racist. Official SCV literature compares Abraham Lincoln to Hitler, and praises and promotes books that defend slavery and books that laud the Ku Klux Klan. Please find enclosed a dossier on the SCV with detailed footnotes of all quotes and assertions. This dossier is also available online at <url here>.

In supporting the Sons of Confederate Veterans you are both doing a disservice to the American public, and give lie to any statements your company might make in personnel policies against discrimination. I ask that you cease supporting the Sons of Confederate Veterans, be this directly or through subsidiaries or intermediaries.

                                                                                                Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                                Edward H. Sebesta

The article which will be mailed to CEOs documenting the extremism of the SCV has been published. The following is the link:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

UPDATE:

The campaign was a complete success. Article on campaign.
http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html

Good News, Arizona Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has disbanded

Good news, the Arizona Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) disbanded in 2012. This Division had been in existence since the 1920s at least. There are still UDC chapters in Arizona, but not enough to continue keeping a Division going.

It isn't a big victory, but does show the gradual erosion of support for the Lost Cause.

"American Conservative" magazine has secession article.

American Conservative magazine has a secession article written by Kirkpatrick Sales, one of the Vermont secessionists. It is about nullification.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-rise-of-nullification/

It is a book review of "Most Likely to Secede," about Vermont by the authors. They have a favorable opinion of their own book. It is their usual craziness.

What is interesting is that they have gotten a venue in the American Conservative. Though my standing joke about American Conservative is that it really would be more accurate to call it Confederate Conservative with all the neo-Confederates that write for it, it is another magazine with a national audience providing a venue for the discussion of secession. Though it is often the same people who write for Chronicles magazine (www.chroniclesmagazine.org) it is also other reactionaries. So it is an expansion of the legitimacy of the idea of secession though perhaps not to a great extent.

Weld County in Colorado illustrates the fundamental problems with the idea of secession, Update, WND has article on secession in Colorado

Weld County Commissioners' call for secession illustrates the inherent follies involved in secession. Weld County is in Colorado. The Denver Post has an editorial on it.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_23415132/secession-plan-is-waste-time

One thing that the editorial points out is that the call for secession is based on various political issues typical of politics and not some great fundamental question.

Also, as shown in the Weld County case, there will always be some people whose complaint is basically that they can't get their way and somehow this is a reason to breakup the polity because with a polity consisting of just themselves they can get their way.

In the voting on any issue the distribution of votes on a question or candidate is not going to be geographically homogeneous. If the expectation that any unit has to be politically homogeneous you are going to end up with something like The Republic of Chester Street Between 14 and 15th Avenue," until there is a vote and the street breaks up into the "Republic of 222 Chester Street," "Republic of 223 Chester Street," etc.

Decisions have to be made and when there isn't unanimous agreement, someone will have lost the vote and others will have won. That is democracy, there is a winning party and a losing party, candidates, legislative votes, etc. Even when there is a unanimous vote for A, there will be differences on how A should be implemented, or there will be different varieties of A, etc.

Being that we live in a Republic there are checks against majority tyranny as laid out in the Bill of Rights. Of course what these boundaries will be has and will likely always be a subject of debate. People generally are adamant about their rights when they are the minority and indifferent to these rights when they are the majority.

I think we can count on people like the Weld County commissioners to continue to make secession sound silly and the issue of complainers.

UPDATE:

WND is reporting on Weld County secession. http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/fed-up-with-leftists-rural-coloradans-talk-secession/?cat_orig=us

Sons of Confederate Veterans Chaplain-in-Chief Cecil A. Fayard, Jr. on "wicked America" and his hysteria over Gays and Lesbians and evolution and the fact that America doesn't follow his religious views.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) has an position called the Chaplain-in-Chief. The Chaplain-in-Chief writes a regular column called "Chaplain's Comments," for the SCV official publication Confederate Veteran (CV).

In many ways it is the most entertaining section in the CV. The writings in this section explode any idea that the SCV is merely a historical remembrance organization or historical society and show decisively that it is a right wing political and religious organization.

In the Sept./Oct. 2009 CV magazine Chaplain-in-Chief Cecil A. Fayard, Jr. has a column, "America Is In Trouble: Part I." It is a fire-and-brimstone type of speech. For example he writes, "In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving to God. Which God? Jehovah God?" I am not sure exactly what he means by this. Is Jehovah God different than the Trinity? Or is it because he doesn't want his readers to think that Washington issued a Day of Thanksgiving to Zeus or Thoth or Vishnu or Cthulhu.

In it Fayard claims that America is headed in the wrong direction and has been for a long time "and now we are reaping what we have sown." So he lists out numbered points on what he thinks is going wrong with America.

The first thing is "hostility to the Bible." He quotes several people in American history who stressed the importance of the Bible, but he doesn't actually list any examples of actual hostility to the Bible. It seems that the issue perhaps is indifference to the Bible from the quotations. If you don't view the Bible the same way and understand it the same way as Fayard, he then sees you as hostile to it.

The next thing that he sees leading America to ruin is the belief in evolution. He writes:

2. The lie of evolution has been sown. "When the Christian people of this country understand the ravages agnosticism cause by the substitution of the unsupported guesses for the Word of God, they will compel the atheists and agnostics to build their own schools instead for the spread of unbelief," (William Jennings Bryan).

I suppose the fossil record and radioisotope dating counts for nothing making these "unsupported guesses."

Fayard asserts that belief in evolution has led the nation to ungodliness and "Our great Southern leaders of the 1800s were men who believed in creation, not evolution." This is a common neo-Confederate argument against a position, rather than argue the merits of an idea, they will argue that it is un-southern. If Jefferson Davis didn't believe in a scientific theory is that evidence in itself that the theory is untrue?

The third thing is America has become immoral, "We have sown immorality," he writes and "We live in a very loose society, a wicked nation morally. All types of unspeakable and deplorable acts are being committed by deviant men and women."

He complains, "One school curriculum in America teaches acceptance of homosexuality in the first grade and mutual masturbation in junior high." Fayard doesn't comment on what "great Southern leaders of the 1800s" thought about these two topics.

He claims suicide has increased "200 times" since 30 years ago which is ridiculous and gives no authority for this wild claim. He also claims that violent crime has increased 500 percent in the last 30 years which shows he is just making wild claims. One of the biggest points of discussion in the field of criminology and sociology nowadays is the question as to what has caused crime to decrease so much over the last few decades. However, if you are going to wail that America is falling apart a few facts aren't going to get in your way.

The fourth complaint is about abortion.

The fifth complaint is that "We have sown ignorance concerning the true history of our nation and our Nation's God," and that the SCV is responsible "to teach the true history of our beloved Southland," which for the SCV would be teaching a history defending the Confederacy.

He continued his essay in the next issue of the CV in he claimed that America is headed to socialism. His solution to the disastrous end that he sees America headed toward is prayer and belief in his particular religious views. He says:

We continue in our day to pray for deliverance -- deliverance from unconsitutional government, from Socialism, from ungodliness and corruption in High Places. 

Fayard certainly has a right to have his beliefs. The point is that the SCV is a religious and political organization with an agenda, which incorporates history as a supporting element, and isn't merely a historical society with a purpose restricted to history and historical remembrance.

David Frum article, "Confederate Traitors Don't Deserve the Honors"

David Frum has an article, "Confederate Traitors Don't Deserve  the Honors." It is at the Daily Beast at this link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/28/confederate-traitors-don-t-deserve-the-honors.html?obref=obinsite

It is an endorsement of a New York Times article suggesting that there shouldn't be military bases named after Confederates which you can read at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/misplaced-honor.html?_r=1&

This might be a trend for opinion leaders to directly and in the strongest terms reject the Confederacy.

"Star Trek" actor George Takei has posting against the Confederate flag.

Star Trek actor George Takei has a posting on his Facebook page against the Confederate flag. He played the character Sulu in the original Start Trek series. There have been over 45,000 likes as of this posting and over 7,000 comments. A lot of them are the usual neo-Confederate rationalizations for the Confederate flag.

You can read it here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=673900022639454&set=a.223098324386295.105971.205344452828349&type=1&theater

The "Washington Post" has an article about Confederate memorials in Washington D.C.

The Washington Post has an article about Confederate memorials in Washington, D.C.  The title is: "Traces of the Confederacy in Washington, not all gone with the wind."

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-04-11/lifestyle/35230625_1_confederate-memorial-association-confederate-embassy-war-ii

Fortunately the Confederate Embassy is now defunct due to infighting of neo-Confederates. They promoted racist stuff. I have a file somewhere on them.

I am sure we can count on Kevin Levin to defend all Confederate memorials in the D.C. area.

Neo-Confederacy and the White Student Union at Towson University

Vice at www.vice.com has done a video documentary on the White Student Union (WSU) at Towson University.

The link is http://www.vice.com/vice-news/white-student-union

It is interesting to view this video to see the sophistication of a new generation of racists. Too many people think they are effective voices against racism, but they aren't.  They are merely are people who are able to denounce groups like the Ku Klux Klan which everyone dislikes anyways. They wouldn't be able to argue against the White Student Union at Towson University.

In the video you can see that at least one League of the South (www.dixienet.org)  member is involved which isn't surprising.

You should note all the Confederate imagery used by the group. Interestingly enough no one in the video seems to view this as the obvious evidence that the WSU has racial animus. The Confederacy did wage war to deny African Americans freedom and keep them in slavery and certainly identifying them and glorifying them is animus against African Americans.

Interestingly the leader says you "get nowhere waiving a Swastika banner" in terms of advancing his agenda but instead has a Confederate flag banner on the wall behind him which he feels won't impact his agenda or show that he has racial animus.

This is the Lost Cause blind spot of the American public. It is a manifestation of the banal white nationalism of many. (www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm).

Those who advance the Lost Cause or give it a free pass are enablers.

"National Review" rejects assertion that the Republican Party is the party of Jefferson Davis, but former U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) said it was

National Review on their website takes exception to the assertion that the Republican Party is the party of Jefferson Davis. You can read the blog here:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/349834/matthews-gop-party-jefferson-davis-andrew-johnson

However, former U.S. Senator Trent Lott, (R-Mississippi), Republican leader in the U.S. Senate, explained in an interview in Southern Partisan magazine that the Republican Party was the party of Jefferson Davis. The interviewer wanted him to explain an assertion which he had made at a national convention of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

This is an extract from page 44 from the Fall 1984 Southern Partisan interview with Trent Lott:

Partisan: At the convention of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Biloxi, Mississippi you made the statement that "the spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform." What did you mean by that?

Lott: I think that a lot of the fundamental principals that Jefferson Davis believed in are very important today to people all across the country, and they apply to the Republican Party. .... After the War between the States, a lot of Southerners identified with the Democrat Party because of the radical Republicans we had at the time, particularly in the Senate. The South was wedded to that party for years and years and years. But we have seen the Republican Party become more conservative and more oriented toward traditional family values, the religious values that we hold dear in the South. And the Democratic party has been going in the other direction. As a result of that, more and more of The South's sons, Jefferson Davis' descendants, direct or indirect, are becoming involved in the Republican Party. The platform we had in Dallas, the 1984 Republican platform, all the ideas we supported there --- from tax policy, to foriegn policy: from individual rights, to neighborhood security --- are things that Jefferson Davis believed in.

Trent Lott wasn't the only Republican U.S. Senator that appeared in the Southern Partisan. There was at least a half dozen.

Article about a United Daughters of the Confederacy project to have a "Mammy" monument in Washington, D.C.

Interesting article at The Atlantic magazine website about a project to have a monument to slave women who were "mammys" in Antebellum times. It actually passed the U.S. Senate.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/the-mammy-washington-almost-had/276431/

David Frum reviews and recommends James McPherson's book "Battle Cry of Freedom" in column at the "Daily Beast"

David Frum reviews and recommends James McPherson's book "Battle Cry of Freedom" in a column at the "Daily Beast." It is a good book, I read it in 1990 or 91. If you are looking for a book to introduce yourself to the Civil War this is one of the best if not the best. 

The review is at this link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/23/david-s-bookclub-battle-cry-of-freedom.html

The second edition is shorter than the first edition. I read the first edition and you might find it on the used book markets.

Frum discusses the Confederacy's refusal to exchange prisoners of war that were African American.

Lee refused. "[N]egroes belonging to our citizens are not considered subjects of exchange and were not included in my proposition." 

This refusal ended the negotiations, for (as Grant wrote), the United States "is bound to secure to all persons received into her armies the rights due as soldiers." 

From time to time, we hear denials of the centrality of slavery to the Civil War. That's apologetics, not history. Slavery was always, always there: the war's fundamental cause, the war's shaping reality.

"New York Times" editorial against U.S. Military bases being named after Confederates

The New York Times has an editorial against U.S. military bases being named after Confederates. You can read it at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/misplaced-honor.html?_r=0

A quote from the article:

Now African-Americans make up about a fifth of the military. The idea that today we ask any of these soldiers to serve at a place named for a defender of a racist slavocracy is deplorable;

The editorial is of course correct. It is outrageous that we name bases after Confederates. 

However, Kevin Levin at Civil War Memory is not happy with this editorial. 

http://cwmemory.com/2013/05/25/misplaced-memory-on-memorial-day-weekend/

His blog is a sort of flailing in logic. A sort of grasping for straws. 

However, this blog and some others are showing his banal white nationalism. (www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm). As public remembrance the Civil War truly starts moving into a mentality of the post-Civil Rights Era and leaves the pre-Civil Rights Era, the era of Paul Buck's "Road to Reunion" we will see in the reactions of Levine and others like him their true colors as they react against this change.