Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War | Tony Horwitz

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War | Tony Horwitz | Wonderful

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Confederates in th...

	Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War Tony Horwitz Vintage, 1999 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 257 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

So what's in *your* attic?

Tony Horwitz has created an enigma around a mystery, that mystery being our (that is, the US's) ongoing love affair with a horrific holocaust that just about gobbled us all up when it really did happen. Horwitz describes charmingly of his childhood, during which he obsessed, as many adolescents do, about the many batttles of the War Between The States, but he put aside those things--he thought--when he went to work as a war correspondent during the Gulf War. God, or fate, or what have you, had other plans, and he and his bride moved back to the states to literally find the Civil War, in the form of hardcore reenactors, in their backyard.

In his ensuing journey, Horwitz allows himself to be changed throughout the process, and emotions still palpable from tragic scenes like Andersonville to seep into his work. He spends a lot of time in classrooms discussing what he finds, which brings up the opportunity to discuss the misperceptions all of us have of the poor men of British and Scottish heritage, many non-slave-owning and even abolitionist at heart, who fought for their rights under a Confederate flag, and to debate racism as it showed its face on both sides.

No doubt these ideas continue to be divisive, as Horwitz notes, but the need to keep this history alive is important. Those that reenact help tremendously in that regard.

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Wonderful

This is a colorful search for answers to an enigmatic childhood fascination with the Civil War, the most calamitous in our history. Visits to battlefields are described with an outline history matched with what the current visitor experiences. Reenactors are profiled (the author embeds himself in one group). Southern locals also provide their views about the War. The result is an engrossing, comparative record of distinct perspectives (and motives). Our current identity as a nation, defined by the prism of the Civil War, is nowhere better examined. History, given omission or embellishment, can become myth to some: to others, truth.

Ultimately this is about how we use history, and how history uses us.

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A very fascinating read about the current views of the Civil War

Tony Horwitz has written fascinating book about his experiences traveling to the southern states and learning more about the Civil War through the eyes of a variety of people.

The Reenactors, who demand perfection in being properly dressed as a Civil War Soldier (otherwise they are Farbs...read the book about FARBS), the students (both black and white) who have far differing opinions of the war, the confederate battle flag, the issue of slavery, etc...and the variety of people who have opinions and beliefs ranging from "slavery caused the Civil War" to the idea that the war was an invasion of the South and an invasion of the culture of the South.

The book has moments that make you laugh and moments that make you wonder when, if ever, our nation will finally heal itself from the Civil War. The overt racism of some groups and people in the book are disturbing (on both sides of the racial issue), but Horwitz does a good job in trying to balance people who believe the south was wrong versus those who feel the southern soldiers fought because they believed they were fighting for a cause.

It's a well written book that both teaches you about the Civil War and makes you think about how strong of an impact the war had on our society as people are still "arguing" 141 years later about a war that killed over 600,000 men.

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interesting, unfortunately missed a very southern corner of the country

Horwitz does a fine job describing how the Civil War still resonates in the life of many southerners (black and white) to this day. The story of the murder of a young rebel flag bearer in south Kentucky is by far the most interesting chapter in the book. About the same age as the Kentuckian, and growing up in Missouri and Oklahoma, this chapter really hit close to home as I recalled some of the hatred I'd witnessed along racial lines. However, I was disappointed that Horwitz didn't spend at least a brief part of his two year journey visiting states like Missouri and seeing how the war still resonates in that region on the edge of the "old south." Horwitz doesn't mention Missouri one time in his book, which is a real shame considering the extreme importance the state played in the war and the very southern mentality that currently resides in many parts of the state. Missouri, a state painfully divided in 1861, is third behind Virginia and Tennessee in the number of battles fought on its soil during the conflict. Missouri was a slave state and offered up many young men to the lost cause. Like Kentucky, Missouri had a star of its own on the rebel battle flag and did pass an ordinance of sucession (now viewed as a "mock" sucession by most historians). From the southwest corner to "little dixie" near the center of the state Missouri has plenty of those flag flying rednecks Horwitz so wonderfully describes. Horwitz claims to be "putting away childish things" at the end of "confederates in the attic." It's my hope that if this great author ever takes another journey across the wonderful south he'll remember that forgotten region of the war's western theatre and delve into how that brutal war effects the citizens of today.

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A book that sees the Civil War through the prism of white guilt. Read the anecdotes, savor the characters, forget the rest

This book has many very interesting anecdotes and the conclusions about the tone of the work noted in the reviews seems to be depending very much on the biases the reader brings to it.

There are passages where he loses his artful detatchment. He is at his best in this book when writing like the reporter he trained as rather as an analyst.

One reviewer mentioned a glaringly biased passage where he throws a cheap critical comment about homeschooling based on a passing conversation. I'll let the reader decide, but here his lack of interest in how homeschoolers and private schools teach the war stands out. He explores the criminal lack of education in the public schools, relying on his objective reporting to damn them. He then is critical of the alternatives without any similar exploration. It is a glaring error found in the run-on ending of the book which raises questions about the whole work.

The Civil War was much more a sectional conflict than about slavery and I was hoping he was going to explore how the sections got back together. Aside from some interesting characters and anecdotes, what you get is a lot of racial self flagellation.

His next book about Captain Cook is pitch perfect and a wonderful read, perhaps because it is about Pacific races that he feels less guilty about.

Stop reading after the Confederate widow, you will miss nothing.

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