I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gone with the Wind and found the book to be more insightful and thought provoking than the movie. Some of the most interesting parts of the book in my opinion were Ashley Wilkes’ mid war commentary and Scarlett’s evolution from a daughter of the planter aristocracy to an avid capitalist paying “minute attention to dollars and cents.” In one of Ashley’s letters to Melanie he provides a perceptive look at the lost cause and the South’s reasons for fighting the war. Ashley’s views on the causation of the war are quite similar to the Blundering Generation theory and he seems to blame nationalistic Southern demagogues for dragging the South into an unwinnable war. Ashley writes:

 “We have been betrayed, betrayed by our arrogant Southern selves, believing that one of us could lick a dozen Yankees, believing in that King Cotton could rule the world. Betrayed, too, by words and catch phrases, prejudices and hatreds coming from the mouths of those highly placed, those men whom we respected and revered—‘King Cotton, Slavery, States’ Rigths, Damn Yankees.’ ”(p. 209)

Ashley also provides an intuitive look at the lost cause theory saying that even if the South won the war, the Cotton Kingdom would contaminate the people of the south and the old quiet ways would disappear forever. He went on to say that he feared that whatever the outcome of the war, the people of the south would “become like the Yankees, at whose money making activities, acquisitiveness and commercialism we now sneer.” (p. 210) Ironically Ashley’s words foreshadowed what Scarlett O’Hara, outwardly the flower of Southern womanhood, would become after the war.

 It is prophetic that Scarlett returned to Atlanta after the war carrying a carpetbag filled with all her belongings. (p. 543) Shortly after her marriage to Frank Kennedy, now a merchant and storeowner, Scarlett borrowed money from Rhett Butler and bought a sawmill. Furthermore, in order to make money, Scarlett forced Mr. Kennedy to behave in the manner of a scalawag and compel their old friends to repay their debts at the store. By operating the saw mill as a cut throat capitalist, Scarlett’s actions were akin to that of a carpet bagger and the rhetoric of a prewar nullification pamphlet describing evil Yankees could have easily been applied to her conduct. In the McCardell book, one nullifier described Yankees as “low minded,” paying “minute attention to dollars and cents, and … the groveling maxim of senseless ignorance and shop keeping vulgarity.” (p. 48) This series of events begs the question; was Scarlett a carpetbagger trying to profit from the downfall of a civilization or was she a part of the first generation of new south boosters trying to revitalize the region and stimulate a return to prosperity.