Reconciliation Narratives: The Birth of a Nation after the US Civil Wart

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Esposito, Elena; Rotesi, Tiziano; Saia, Alessandro; Thoenig, Mathias
• 署名单位: University of Turin; Collegio Carlo Alberto; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of Lausanne; University of Bologna; University of Oxford
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20210413
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1461-+
• 关键词: CONFLICT; CONSEQUENCES; radio; media; news

摘要

We study how the spread of the Lost Cause narrative-a revisionist and racist retelling of the US Civil War-shifted opinions and behaviors toward national reunification and racial discrimination against African Americans. Looking at screenings of The Birth of a Nation, a blockbuster movie that greatly popularized the Lost Cause after 1915, we find that the film shifted the public discourse toward a more patriotic and less divisive language, increased military enlistment, and fostered cultural convergence between former enemies. We document how the racist content of the narrative connects to reconciliation through a common-enemy type of argument.