Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

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

books:

Confederates in th...

	Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War Tony Horwitz Vintage, 1999 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 255 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Entertainment with a message, but still entertainment!

Confederates in the Attic is an interesting journey through shifting cultural attitudes, both of the narrator and of the South in general. Horwitz seems to want readers to sympathize the admirers of the Confederacy even as they shun their most outrageous actions. The title refers to the narrator's childhood when he drew scenes from the Civil War onto the walls of his attic.

When the narrator first encountered hard core Confederate re-enactors, he thought they were crazy. Who in their right mind would spend a night freezing under the stars instead of sleeping in a nearby hotel, waiting the battle to come on the following day? Who would deliberately starve himself to look more like the photographs from the Civil War battlefields? However, as time went on, the author came to admire these hard core re-enactors for the determination to do it right. He even took part in their rituals and craved their praise.

Not all of the battles in the book were re-enactments. The author and his friend were involved in a nasty bar fight over cultural and racial issues. The author was constantly surprised at the depth of racial hatred in the rural parts of the south that he visited, and was astonished at how little students knew about the reality of the Civil War. He was appalled at how black students were being taught to hate white people based on the Civil War.

The most interesting parts of the book were the ones where the Daughters and Sons of the Confederacy were described. Otherwise normal people gained their entire identity from the actions of their ancestors. Some operated museums, some kept the faith alive through indoctrinating their children. The exception was the last surviving confederate widow who just wanted people to leave her alone.

This book speaks to present-day events as much as it does to the past. The narrator constantly encounters prejudice of many forms. Each person, no matter how bizarre they might appear to others, considers him/herself normal and the rest of the world as off-base. The southerners seem to want to preserve, and/or bring back the traditional family values of the Confederacy: white supremacy, male supremacy, and religious fundamentalism. In today's political battlefields, these views are becoming more crucial to the survival of the Republican party, or at least those politicians seem to want voters to believe.

for more information click here

Read it!

This is a book that I continue to recommend to just about anybody. It is so well written that I simply could not put it down. It is a book I have consistently put on my "recommended" list in my Civil War courses. It is part travelogue, part history, part social commentary, and all good. The author is more journallist than historian, but, bearing that in mind, he does a great job illuminating the relevance and long-term effects of the Civil War.

The Lost Cause II

Horwitz's book is funny, deep, sad, and most importantly informative. One cannot help but laugh at hardcore Civil War re-enactors, but at the same time Horwitz portrays them with dignity. One common theme running through the book is how old towns, businesses, and communities are being destroyed by sub developments and corporate chains. The South is no exception to this. Many critics have chastised this book for not representing the whole South, and what the South has become in the last 50 years. I could not disagree more. The whole point that the author is trying to make is that there is a certain segment of society that is resisting this change, and how those people identify with another lost cause 140 years ago. Overall, Horwitz's book explores a segment of society in the late 20th century whose time may soon be gone with the wind.

for more information click here

A Good Read, but He could have Dug Deeper

The Question asked/implied by this book is, What makes remembrance of the Confederacy by enthusiasts so enduring?

In my opinion, the author could have delved much deeper into this wonderfully complicated mess. Instead, he betrays a layman's struggle with some of the questions poised to interviewees. He talks to countless rednecks and generally thoughtless folk, and not surprisingly, he doesn't really obtain a lot of insight.

The idea of this book is a great one, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Example: the segment on Andersonville. One of the reasons cited by Confederate apologists for the atrocity of Andersonville was the fact that the Union refused to exchange prisoners at some point. Horowitz then adds that the Union did this in protest to the South's refusal to exchange African-American prisoners. From there, he writes off Andersonville's defenders as a confused anomaly within some Southern pocket. Now they are that I'll grant, but could he not have thought a bit deeper about the lack of Union need to exchange prisoners as opposed to the Confederacy, who had no means of making up their losses? And could he not have traveled to Georgia with this consideration in hand? In many ways, the scope of the book, although well intended, does not venture from the bonds of strictly Northern sensibilities. This is a significant handicap for those wanting insight on Southern motivations and why the Confederacy is revered in some circles, and reviled in others.

Now, enough with the negative - this book is well worth your time, despite the shortcomings cited above. The chapters on Civil War reenacting are absolutely hilarious. Speaking as a reenactor, they provide great insight into the silliness and beauty of the hobby.

This book is not without its great interview moments, either. Some wonderful stuff to be found here. A good read, indeed, but hopefully not the final word on Confederama.

for more information click here