Lessons from the Civil War

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gone with the Wind, released in 1939, is the highest-grossing film of all time. Based on Margaret Mitchell's novel published a few years earlier, it is a story of romance set against the backdrop of the civil war and reconstruction era. But, as Sarah Churchwell tells Don, it whitewashes the horrors of slavery, while condemning those who abolished it. And it is not alone. This is something that has happened in popular culture and the media since the civil war and continues today.

Produced by Benjie Guy. Assistant producer Sophie Gee. Mixed by Joseph Knight. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the evening of February 29th, 1940 in Los Angeles.
0:04.0	Hattie McDaniel, celebrated actress comedian and singer-songwriter,
0:08.0	becomes the first African-American to win an Oscar,
0:12.0	her best actress in a supporting role in Gone With the Wind.
0:15.5	The epic David O'Selsnick film based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel published
0:20.4	four years earlier.
0:21.8	It is a landmark moment in American cultural history,
0:24.7	given that at the time racial segregation is still rampant across the United States.
0:31.1	But sadly at tonight's glamorous ceremony staged at the Coconut Grove nightclub,
0:35.7	Hattie McDaniel is seated apart from her castmates and their fellow white attendees
0:40.8	off to the side of the room because the Ambassador Hotel where the nightclub is
0:45.1	located follows a strict segregationist policy. Indeed, months before when the movie was
0:50.8	premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, McDaniel and other African American cast members from the film weren't even invited.
0:59.0	Gone with the wind was conceived as an allegorical tale,
1:02.4	characterizing the Civil War and Reconstruction. was conceived as an allegorical tale,
1:02.6	characterizing the Civil War and reconstruction,
1:05.3	rather successfully back in the day,
1:07.2	in terms of the Lost Cause South
1:09.2	resolved like Scarlet O'Hara herself to rise again.
1:13.7	But of course, it whitewashed the agonizing truths of enslavement and exploitation.
1:18.7	The book still lists among the most popular and profitable ever published, still sells hundreds of thousands of
1:23.7	copies every year the film well it's the highest grossing movie of all time
	...

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