Action and Ideas in the Confederacy

In Confederate Nationalism, Faust writes with a heavy focus on the themes of action and ideas as they were present within the South in the era of the Civil War. He is wary of any notions of Southern nationalism or ideology that may come from a hind-sighted retrospection of Confederate values. Additionally, he works against the argument that "Confederates had to build a culture[...]because they did not have one in the first place" through a comparison of successful nationalist movements abroad with existing evidence of Southern culture (5). Faust relates Nazism and Italian Fascism in the middle of the 20th century, where both institutions actively participated in a "creation of culture" that was both "necessary" and "self-conscious," to Confederate nationalism. The point here is that intentional, ideological fabrication of ideas and culture does not serve as a starting point of a nation, but that the participation in the creation of nationalist ideas serves to unite and expound upon preconceptions of the values of a "nation" that already exists, to some degree.

It was demanded, Faust writes, "that Confederate Southerners define themselves in deeds" (5). The balance between ideas and actions is demonstrated through evidence of the Southern romance with continental European nationalist movements, especially that of the French. The South moved beyond a fantasy relationship with French nationalism through the production of borrowed songs and battle hymns, notably the "Southern Marseillaise." Similarly, Southern 'citizens' aimed to distinguish themselves from the "Anglo-Saxons" of the North, as they generally identified more with "Norman" influence (10).

As with other "pre-literate" societies, the Confederacy was most active in spoken language distinction. Ever-involved in the "effort to build a consensus at home," the Confederates were focused on purifying the Southern English dialect by avoiding "Yankeeisms and Africanism" as both were a "mongrelization or creolization" of the noble English language.

How dependent were Confederate actions upon Confederate ideas, and vice versa? At what point did it become ironic to identify with continental, European, nationalist movements?