REVISIONIST HISTORY—STATES’ RIGHTS AND THE CIVIL WAR.

REVISIONIST HISTORY—STATES’ RIGHTS AND THE CIVIL WAR. An avowedly revisionist history is LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME by James Loewen, which I came across about ten years ago, and which did change some of my views, most notably about Woodrow Wilson. Loewen had a recent article in the Washington Post (January 9), which changed my view of the beginnings of the Civil War. Loewen points out that although the South before and after the war couched their arguments in terms of states’ rights, “In fact, Confederates opposed states’ rights — that is, the right of Northern states not to support slavery….The South’s opposition to states’ rights is not surprising. Until the Civil War, Southern presidents and lawmakers had dominated the federal government.” Of course. This explains why the disputes between North and South before Lincoln’s election focused on issues like the Fugitive Slave Act and the extension of slavery into new territories—issues where there was an attempt to extend the power of the central government.