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The Wrath to Come

Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells

Sarah Churchwell

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English
Head of Zeus
01 August 2023
Gone With the Wind, the myth of the Lost Cause and what they can tell us about American history and culture today – from Walter Scott and Ladies Fair, to fiery crosses, lynching and the Capitol insurrection.

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel, Gone With the Wind, became an overnight bestseller when it was published in 1936; the film rights were snapped up before it was even published and the production would famously go on to win ten Academy Awards.

In this fascinating analysis of Gone With the Wind's history and legacy, Sarah Churchwell examines the creation of one of the most popular stories of all time and its problematic depictions of race and women. Mitchell's early life was steeped in nostalgia for the 'good old days' of slavery, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, influences that would shape both the book's plot and racial politics. The heroine, Scarlett, is one of the first modern portraits of complex womanhood; a twentieth-century woman trapped in the 1860s, however, her agency is achieved at the expense of people of colour, and the novel's white feminism is in tension against its racism.

Churchwell traces the novel and film's relationship to the myth of the Lost Cause and how they foreshadow the controversies in America today over the removal of Confederate statues, the rise of white nationalism and the Black Lives Matter movement; and the value of the story's uses – and misuses – of national mythologies.

By:  
Imprint:   Head of Zeus
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm, 
ISBN:   9781789542998
ISBN 10:   1789542995
Pages:   464
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Sarah Churchwell is Professorial Fellow in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. An American living in London, she is the author of Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream, Careless People about The Great Gatsby, and The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. She has contributed to the Guardian, New Statesman, Financial Times and Times Literary Supplement, and comments regularly on arts, culture, and politics for UK television and radio. She judged the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction, and was a co-winner of the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer's Award.

Reviews for The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells

'Eye-opening and at times jaw-dropping; a powerful reminder of the prejudices and suffering horrors of the recent past, and a call to arms to learn from the lessons of history. Highly recommended' -- Peter Frankopan 'An extraordinarily and shockingly powerful read... With meticulous research and fine structure, it offers a most disturbing arc that transports us from now back to what we thought was another era but which is, in reality, so deeply enmeshed with the intolerances and prejudices of today. At times the narrative took my breath away. I was riveted from start to finish' -- Philippe Sands 'Sarah Churchwell's brilliant and provocative guide to understanding the twenty-first century dis-United States of America explores America's myths about itself, through that great Hollywood myth about the South and racism, Gone With the Wind. If you want to know why Donald Trump connects with so many Americans today, as a link to the 'Lost Cause' of the Confederacy, Churchwell's account offers the answers' -- Gavin Esler 'A brilliant and important book that exposes the truths hidden by one of the world's most famous stories and, in so doing, reveals how the (im)moral weight of this tale has not only shaped American culture over the last century but is shaping American politics and society today. One of the must-reads of the year' -- Suzannah Lipscomb 'The Wrath to Come is packed with fascinating, well-researched and often jaw-dropping history' * Daily Telegraph * 'Churchwell's excoriating analysis is energising' * Literary Review * 'Stylish and thoughtful, Churchwell's book is an exemplary exploration of how Gone with the Wind reflects, and continues to affect, American culture' * Spectator * 'A painful reflection on how the ghosts of the civil war still haunt US culture' * The Times * 'The case Churchwell builds against Gone with the Wind is a compelling one' * Sunday Times * 'Rich in detail and rigorously argued, this is cultural history at its very best' * Tortoise Media *


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