1867: Second Edition (described as “New and Enlarged Edition” on the title page); Publishers: E B Treat & Co, New York; 776 pages; Illustrated with 24 portrait engravings of notable Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. Rubbing marks on spine and back board, plus wear at top and bottom of spine. Binding and overall condition of the inside of the book is good.
The Lost Cause: A new Southern History of the War of the Confederates by Edward A. Pollard is a highly controversial and historically significant work, first published in 1866 — just a year after the end of the American Civil War.
Pollard, a Confederate sympathiser and journalist, sought to frame the Confederacy’s defeat in a way that preserved Southern pride and redefined the narrative for future generations of Southerners. His book offers a detailed chronicle of the war from the Southern point of view, covering battles, campaigns, and political developments. But beyond being a war history, The Lost Cause became a vehicle for Pollard’s unapologetic defence of slavery and white supremacy.
Pollard argued that slavery was not only central to the Southern way of life but a noble institution, and he sought to portray the Confederacy’s fight as a righteous and heroic struggle against Northern aggression. The book was instrumental in helping lay the ideological groundwork for what later became known as the Lost Cause myth — a revisionist interpretation of the war that romanticised the antebellum South, glorified Confederate leaders, and minimised the role of slavery as a cause of the conflict.
While widely discredited by modern historians, The Lost Cause remains a notable piece of post-Civil War literature for its cultural influence and as a window into Southern sentiment and propaganda in the immediate aftermath of the war.
