The Limits of the Lost Cause: Essays on Civil War Memory - Hardcoverby Gaines M. Foster (Author) The Limits of the Lost Cause challenges prevailing ways of thinking about the impact of the Civil War on the American South. Above all, Gaines Foster's work encourages Americans to confront the new divisions within their society even as they wrestle with old national not just southern failings. Author Biography Gaines M. Foster is the Murphy J. Foster Professor of History Emeritus at Louisiana State University and author