ETHNIC LEGENDS IN THE GRAY ZONES OF HISTORY: THE CASE OF GERMANS IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Even if not as intensive as a hundred years ago, or during the “ethnic revival” of the seventies, but again growing with the internet, there is a competition in North America between ethnicities for attention, recognition, respect, and sympathy. There are various players, the leadership in clubs and in organizing festivals and parades, musical events, producers of websites, the foreign-language press, the relevant university departments, even, indirectly, foreign governments. And, of course, there is grass-roots prejudice that is meant to be cultivated. Historical legends are, of course, not the only means to boost ethnic ego and prestige. The essay deals with the ethnic legends about the Civil War period that have been present in German-American historiography.