Getting the late unpleasantness right

As annoying, mawkish, and just plain weird as the weeping Abraham Lincoln cover of last week's Time magazine was, the actual cover story, "Why We're Still Fighting the Civil War," was actually illuminating and helpful. It tracks the history of interpretation of the War of the Rebellion, shows the origins of the war over slavery in the territories (particularly Kansas), demonstrates the origins of Confederacy apologetics, presents the current-day scholarly consensus (giving due to the contributions of John Hope Franklin and other mid-20th century African American historians), and properly presents the justifiers of secessionism who claim anything other than slavery caused the Civil War as the fringe group they are. Members of said fringe will not be persuaded, of course, but as the text of the Declaration of Independence hasn't gotten through to them yet, that's hardly a criticism.

All in all, an unusually good showing for Time. And then they published this week's cover story...