The Countryman: Joseph Addison Turner and the Cultural Construction of Confederate Nationalism

This master\u27s thesis starts from the premise that Confederate nationalism was not just a political entity, but a cultural project. It examines the role of print culture in shaping a distinctive and unified Confederate community. Emerging on the eve of the Civil War, Confederate nationalism flourished due to the creation and dissemination of southern print culture through newspapers and magazines. This thesis approaches the development of Confederate cultural nationalism through a case study, Joseph Addison Turner, who wrote and edited a weekly journal, The Countryman, from 1862 to 1866. Through The Countryman, Turner advocated and shaped white southern beliefs and perceptions in an effort to unite southerners around a common goal of an autonomous nation. By showing how Joseph Turner fostered a southern cultural movement to forge a patriotic bond amongst white southerners, this research highlights the importance of print culture in the construction of Confederate nationalism