Luo Chao and Gao Chunchang, A Review on the Study of the Civil War Memory in the Academia of American Historians

　　The writing of the Civil War history contributes to the formation of the Civil War memory, and the adjustment of the memory promotes the evolution of the Civil War writing. Through the efforts of Southern veterans and women, ‘Lost Cause’ rose from a local memory to a national one. It was not until the late stage of the Vietnam War that scholars analysed the rise and influence of ‘Lost Cause’ memory from the perspectives of social, cultural and political needs. Their research objects focused on group memory, hero memory and tangible memory fields concerned with the former battlefield sites, military cemeteries and monuments. The multifaceted ‘Union Cause’ memory had long been forgotten by Americans in the service of national reunion and reconciliation. In the late 1980s, in order to highlight the contribution of the black people to the American history, scholars began to re evaluate such Civil War memory, which emphasized the national reunification and the emancipation of the blacks. Therefore, the study of the Civil War memory in the American academia generally follows two research paths of ‘Lost Cause’ and ‘Union Cause’, while not being completely free from the interference of ideology. From the beginning of the 21st century, the research on the history of the Civil War memory gradually moved towards the direction of multiple socialization.