The classic American film Gone with the Wind (1939) is controversial because of its idealized depiction of the South before, during, and after the American Civil War. The film, based on the best-selling 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell, portrays antebellum society as a harmonious fantasy, full of chivalrous gentlemen, elegant ladies, and contented enslaved people. Furthermore, it carries on the Lost Cause tradition of depicting the Civil War as being caused only by Northern aggression and Reconstruction as a period characterized by unjust burdens being placed on white citizens and lawlessness caused by the emancipation of formerly enslaved Black people.