Reconciliation Narratives:The Birth of a Nationafter the US Civil War
研究了《一个国家的诞生》这部电影如何传播“失落的事业”叙事，推动美国南北和解但加剧对非裔的种族歧视，通过“共同敌人”逻辑连接种族主义与和解。
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.