The American civil war has never been in short supply of myths. Just because something is counterintuitive does not make it true. “One of the things that I’m fascinated by is the extent to which Americans still struggle over coming to terms with the core issues of the civil war and reconstruction, and that is slavery and the issue of race,” says Levin regarding his new book, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, argues that slavery was central to the south’s war effort. Drawing on research including letters, diary entries and newspaper editorials, it demolishes the notion that the Confederacy embraced black men as soldiers from the beginning of the war. Read more at theguardian.com