The Armenian Lost Cause and the Interpreted History of the American Civil War.

Most Americans today believe slavery caused the American Civil War, but adherents of the Lost Cause narrative advance the idea that southerners fought the war for honor, state's rights, and in defense of their homeland which was invaded by the northerners. A similar Armenian Lost Cause narrative has evolved which centers on the idea that 1.5 million Ottoman-Armenians were killed deliberately and systematically in 1915 during an Armenian Genocide. Moreover, the narrative insists that the Ottoman-Armenians were essentially innocent victims and the Ottoman state, represented in situ by Muslim Turks, killed them for economic and racially prejudiced reasons. Like the Confederate Lost Cause the Armenian Lost Cause mythology has generated an entire literature supporting the narrative and a similar cult-like passion to its orthodoxy. This article compares the construction and effects of Lost Cause narratives and suggests revisions to the Armenian Lost Cause narrative based on the inclusion of authentic archival holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]