The Contemporary Connection

While reading the introduction for the years 1865-1914, I noticed an encompassing connection to contemporary society. I felt that many facets and attitudes during this period after the Civil War related to our lives after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  First, after the Civil War, the country was in a state of shock in trauma after the horrific event that occurred during the war. That was the same for the United States following 9/11. Americans were still in a state of panic, but at the same time we all drew closer together in order to just cope with what happened and the great devastation. Everyone suffered some sort of loss on that day, whether we directly knew someone that died or not. For many people it was mainly a loss of feeling secure in the land that we called home. From that point on we wanted to restore hope and try to pick up the pieces in order to rebuild our nation’s morale, just like Americans after the Civil War.

Another connection I made was in the theme for literature and other forms of entertainment during both of these periods. After the Civil War, authors were writing about loved ones lost, rebuilding the nation, and being courageous.  After 9/11 many others wrote about their experiences during the attacks or the experiences of other Americans, as well as many other books on how to deal with the devastation. Film and music were also affected because numerous movies have been made about the terrorist attacks and songs have been written about restoring the idea of patriotism. After the Civil War, John Greenleaf Whittier gained fame with his “nostalgic evocation of a simpler, rural world that had been destroyed by the Civil War” in Snow-Bound.(24) That same destruction of innocence and security can be connected to our post-9/11 America. We are now constantly bombarded with memories of that fateful day because of all the security measures that are currently in place in the United States, especially in regards to airport security. Our lives before 9/11 were definitely a much simpler time, but now the United States will never be the same because we constantly have another attack on our minds.

A third connection that I found was the treatment of minorities after both the Civil War and 9/11. Immediately after the Civil War, African Americans were treated terribly, possibly worse than they were as slaves. The Jim Crowe laws were enacted and they were also being blamed and brutalized by the Ku Klux Klan. Many people hated them just because of their race and did not want them in the United States. It reminded me of the treatment and stereotyping of Americans of Middle-Eastern descent after 9/11. People became very paranoid and unfairly stereotyped everyone as a terrorist just because of their race. Once again we started to turn our citizens against each other because of skin color.