our computers and on our phones and on television, you can't divorce this from the need to return to some sort of innocent past. >> like the old south? >> yes. >> what is the old south? >> after the civil war, the old south myth is this mythologized place of big plantation houses with corinthian columns and mint juleps and hoop skirts and southern gentlemen and happy slaves. everyone is well taken care of. some people are owned by other people, but everyone is well fed, well clothed, loved and appreciated. and that is not -- this is why something like this would appeal to white northerners, because that's not the environment that they lived in. >> it's really a story about the merits of white supremacy. you know, i filmed with another historian who said it was really white supremacy that helped the north and the south reunify after the war. do you think that's true?