What I have been dealing with so far was the American memory
and interpretation of the Confederate battle flag in different decades.
However, I feel that not just the American point of view but the European would
also be an interesting topic. I decided to write about it too in my essay, and
it is worth a mentioning in my blog as well.
First of all, people in Europe treated the flag as another
American symbol. It became a craze after the Soviet Union collapsed and the
Eastern Block as such vanished. People went to the streets, celebrated, and
some of them were waving the battle flag, “which they viewed as an appropriate symbol
of their struggle for independence against totalitarian control”.
According to John M. Coski, the presence of the flag in
Europe in the 1990’s was undeniable. It was displayed on clothes, motorcycles,
in cars. The flag was the part of the picture of Europe about the USA.
“Whether as a symbol of national liberation or of individual
expression and rebelliousness, in Europe the Confederate battle flag is
associated typically with American values and American culture. From a vantage
point beyond our shores, the Confederate flag is an American symbol. While
Americans naturally have a greater understanding of the Confederate flag’s more
specific and divisive connotations, the Europeans have grasped something that
Americans take for granted: the Confederate flag is fundamentally an American
flag”. 293
