Rhetorical analysis of the myth of the lost cause as embodied in Robert E. Lee

This thesis will focus on a rhetorical analysis of the Lost Cause as embodied by Robert E. Lee. The Lost Cause was a cultural attitude, with a marble reification in the monuments that proliferated throughout the South after 1875 (Wilson 1980, 19). Most of the existing research on Lee and Civil War history ignores a very important post-war development: the general's role as a symbol of a cohesive Southern people with a separate cultural identity. This thesis takes the position that the Lee myth served Southern needs; it helped the region respond to the exigencies of post-war life. This study aims to shed light on the myth.

[Excerpt from the Introduction]