This week on Cover to Cover:
Jason Phillips persuasively answers a Civil War mystery: Why did so many Confederates doggedly keep fighting when any rational observer would have recognized looming defeat? Examining a most impressive array of sources, particularly soldiers' letters and diary entries from 1863 to 1865, Phillips explores how religious faith, cheerleading propaganda, admiration of the officer class, hatred of Yankees, military discipline, bonding in the ranks, and stubborn denial of the obvious were all factors. Phillips eloquently and poignantly recounts the deprivations and sacrifices that were endured by Confederate diehards in vain hope of eventual victory and the haunting legacy of that resistance for all Southerners, black and white, over the next 100 years. Interview is by Southern Lit Cadre member and Georgia Historical Society Major Domo Dr. Stan Deaton.
