Ta-Nehisi does a cost-benefit analysis and doesn't find the Civil War tragic at all:
Six hundred thousand people died in the Civil War, a shocking figure which doesn't really capture the toll that this sort of violence took on the country at large. And yet when I think about the Civil War I don't feel sad at all. To be honest, I feel positively fucking giddy. … The Civil War is our revolution. It ended slavery, and birthed both modern America, and modern black America.
That can never be tragic to me.
In later posts, TNC clarifies his position and responds to J.L. Wall's complementary argument.
The Dish 