The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 97

Book Reviews

were unable to restore the original vitality of the movement.
McMillen focuses his study on the Deep South and especially on
Mississippi, the state that most strongly supported and most generous-
ly subsidized the Councils. He devotes a full chapter to Council
organization in Louisiana and adequately treats the movement in
Texas and Arkansas. The Councils' more recent efforts to build
an organization in California are also treated in some detail.
The Citizens' Councils have held a certain attraction for scholars,
partly because of the organizations' importance in shaping southern
response to school desegregation, partly because the Councils so
clearly reflected the most negative aspects of large sections of south-
ern white society, and partly, no doubt, because of the sheer atavistic
nature of such a movement in mid-twentieth century America. Cer-
tainly, McMillen's study of the Councils is the most thorough yet
to appear in print.
Woodrow Wilson International Center NUMAN V. BARTLEY
for Scholars
The Image of Lincoln in the South. By Michael Davis. (Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1971. Pp. 205. Footnotes, bibliog-
raphy, index. $7.95.)
"The living President Lincoln was a cause for disunion, war, and
fratricide. The dead Lincoln, incarnated in the living symbol based
upon the character of the real man, was a powerful force for reunion
and fraternity." These closing words from Michael Davis's study of
southern views of Lincoln provide an apt summary of the book as well.
Beginning with Lincoln's nomination for the presidency in 186o,
Davis extends his survey to 19o09, when the emotional outpourings
honoring Lincoln's centennial demonstrated that a southerner could
love the Great Emancipator and the Lost Cause as well.
Concentrating upon white opinion-Davis notes that black views
on Lincoln deserve another volume-the author conveys the tone
and feeling as well as the changes in southern attitudes toward
Lincoln in the post-Civil War period. Quotes, many humorous, some
amazingly bitter, are sprinkled throughout and give the flavor of
popular ideas. Davis' research is well done, extending to newspapers,
magazines, novels, poems, sermons and other items that reflect widely
held opinions. The author maintains a nice balance of quoted material