Somersault’s editorial director Dave Lambert says this New York Times commentary talks about the effects of one author's novels, Sir Walter Scott, on the attitudes that created the Civil War. “Who says books don't affect society?,” he asks.
In the commentary Cynthia Wachtell says
Sir Walter Scott not only dominated gift book lists on the eve of the Civil War but also dominated Southern literary taste throughout the conflict. His highly idealized depiction of the age of chivalry allowed Southern readers and writers to find positive meaning in war’s horrors, hardships, and innumerable deaths. And his works inspired countless wartime imitators, who drew upon his romantic conception of combat.
...[According to Mark Twain], “Sir Walter Scott had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war.”
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