An examination of Gone With the Wind, the myth of the Lost Cause and
what they can tell us about American history and culture today.
'The narrative took my breath away' Philippe Sands, author, The
Ratline
'An extraordinarily and shockingly powerful read' Peter Frankopan,
author, The Silk Roads
'One of the must-reads of the year' Suzannah Lipscomb, author,
Journey Through Tudor England
Sarah Churchwell examines one of the most enduringly popular stories of
all time, Gone with the Wind, to help explain the divisions ripping
the U.S. apart today. Separating fact from fiction, she shows how
histories of mythmaking have informed America's racial and gender
politics, the controversies over Confederate statues, the resurgence of
white nationalism, the Black Lives Matter movement, the enduring power
of the American Dream, and the violence of Trumpism.
Gone with the Wind was an instant bestseller when it was published in
1936; its film version became the most successful Hollywood film of all
time. Today the story's racism is again a subject of controversy, but it
was just as controversial in the 1930s, foreshadowing today's debates
over race and American fascism. In The Wrath to Come, Sarah Churchwell
charts an extraordinary journey through 160 years of American denialism.
From the Lost Cause to the romances behind the Ku Klux Klan, from the
invention of the 'ideal' slave plantation to the erasure of interwar
fascism, Churchwell shows what happens when we do violence to history,
as collective denial turns fictions into lies, and lies into a vicious
reality.
