Well, ever since my seven year sojourn in Frederiksburg, Va., I've been trying to understand the jaundiced eye with which so many people in the south view that war, and the north. I guess the best thing that Horwitz gave us was Shelby Foote's explanation: the war was fought in their front yards. (except for Gettysburg...and here and there in Indiana and Ohio and D.C.) Also, I think they love the glorious romantic sense of loss of it all.
I loved reading this book. Horwitz is a smart fun guy.

A superb book. I'd have given it four and a half stars if possible. It doesn't merit five stars because of some repetitive sections. Laugh out loud funny in parts, ponderous (in a good way), well-researched, and eye-opening. This was a really fun book to read.

Gonzo journalism: Reporting done by a reporter who is deeply, subjectively involved in what s/he is reporting. Reviewers have called Horwitz condescending. I didn't find him so. I found him very emotionally involved with some of the people he met. But some of the people were just funny.

The subtitle of the book is "Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War." So Horwitz writes about people for whom the war has not ended. It is not an exhaustive sociological study of the contemporary south, and should not be judged as such.

I won't repeat all the observations that have already been made. I learned a lot from this book. For people who enjoyed the book, I want to recommend Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer. It covers four groups who came to America for "freedom" - Puritans, Quakers, Virginia royalists and "Scots-Irish".

The Quakers and Puritans wanted the "freedom" to micromanage each others lives in order to create a rigidly moralistic heaven on earth. The royalists and, especially, the Scots-Irish wanted the "freedom" to do anything they damn well wanted, including enslaving other people. It is easy to see how this "oil and water" mix lead to the civil war.

Gonzo journalism: Reporting done by a reporter who is deeply, subjectively involved in what s/he is reporting. Reviewers have called Horwitz condescending. I didn't find him so. I found him very emotionally involved with the people. But some of the people were just funny.

I won't repeat all the observations that have already been made. I learned a lot from this book. I want to recommend Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer. It covers four groups who came to America for "freedom" - Puritans, Quakers, Virginia royalists and "Scots-Irish".

The Quakers and Puritans wanted the "freedom" to micromanage each others lives in order to create a rigidly moralistic heaven on earth. The royalists and Scots-Irish wanted the "freedom" to do anything they damn well wanted, including enslaving other people. It is easy to see how this "oil and water" mix could lead to civil war.

The only thing that can deter people from buying this book is the cover. The cover will lead someone to believe that the book is about dumb rednecks that can't let something go. Once the reader understands and finds out that person poising on the cover is one of the "hardcores", Robert Lee Hodge, you will understand what is all about. The books does pesent all views. Plus, the added fact that Tony Horwitz is jewish brings a different insight to this American subculure. If your a serious buff of the "War Between the States" or the "War for States Rights" then I do not reccomend this book. If your are from the south or any other part of the world then you should buy this book ASAP! Very entertaining.

Horwitz's Pulitzer-winning background in reporting from Middle Eastern war zones was useful as he traversed the South in researching and writing Confederates in the Attic. A native of Washington, DC, great-grandson of a Russian Jewish emigrant who spent a princely sum out of his meager earnings to buy a 10-volume photographic history of the Civil War, Horwitz was a Civil War geek who grew out of it in adolescence and left it behind, so he thought, as a war correspondent.

But he was sucked back into his youthful obsession by "hardcore" reenactors filming a Civil War documentary outside his home in the Blue Ridge region of Virginia, near the heart of the Eastern battles of the war. While reenacting Civil War events has become a popular hobby (and big business) in the last two decades, these hardcores take the hobby to its logical extremes (period perfect uniforms, vermin-ridden food, minimal personal hygiene), at times expressing their regret that they can't go the limit--dying in battle, or in a diseased stupor in a field hospital or prison camp.

Horwitz joins the head hardcore on a Civil "Wargasm" tour of the Eastern battle zone: they sleep in the private graveyard where Stonewall Jackson's amputated arm is interred, startle and horrify olfactory-capable tourists, and sneak into Antietam national battlefield to sleep in Bloody Lane where thousands of Confederates died.. Then Horwitz goes on his own throughout the South to document the current state of Civil War remembrance, Confederate worship, and race relations.

The tale is a difficult one. Horwitz finds (as living remembrances and first-hand records have faded into past generations) the current generation of adults and the children who imitate and follow them using and misusing the Civil War for their own purposes. The results can turn tragic, as the casual and apparently unselfconscious racism of "Rebel flag" supporters lead to deadly violence, while many African-American young people have no idea, and no care to learn, of the sacrifices made in the 1860s, and even the 1960s.

The Civil War, Horwitz finds, is still being fought by so many in the South. His matter-of-fact reportorial style, with just an edge of irony and humor (which combined with his nervy willingness to ask any question is a necessary component of his survival in some--shall we way--stressful situations) is the perfect blend to show empathy for the people he meets while telling sometimes difficult truths to them and to the reader.

Like Horowitz, I have no genealogical connection to the war, despite being born and living all of my life within 10 miles of either side of the Mason-Dixon line dividing North from South, much of it with 30 miles of Gettysburg to the north and Antietam to the south--until, at the age of 40, I moved to Raleigh, NC for my work. I followed the path well-worn by every other Yankee with the sense or motivation to retreat from the deteriorating and population-shedding cold-weather cities and towns of the northeast in search of work and warmth. This makes the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country--and also makes it very difficult to find a true Southerner. I have met some who are still fighting the War with a bitterness that an outsider like myself can't understand, and others (sometimes the same ones) who are amongst the finest human beings I have met, and are now my best friends. The contradiction is difficult to reconcile, indeed may be irreconcilable.

When Horwitz was writing in 1998, he was concerned about rising racial tension between white and black. Today, 10 years past, in Raleigh, the real racial tension is between a rising Hispanic population and all other ethnic groups, who toss the homogenizing slur "Mexicans" into polite conversation with only occasional embarrassment. The violence (physical and political) surrounding the War and its Confederate remembrance (or celebration, depending which on side your axe is being ground) has been blunted and directed toward this group of "other" who have no roots or history (genealogical, cultural, or otherwise) in the War.

This book, classic as it stands, would be strengthened even further by a second edition updating the state of the attitudes and actions that Horwitz documented first time around. Unfortunately (for this subject), Horwitz has turned his eye on other topics (for example, Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

A good companion volume to Confederates in the Attic with a more recent take on the subject is Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America, which I review favorably here.

This is the third copy I have purchased. I keep giving them away to people who know good humor and love history. It helps to draw a connection between the events of the Civil War and the personalities who now populate the South.

I read this book for the first time over 5 years ago and still think about it. It is hard to categorize, part history, part travelogue, part sociology, part buddy story. Since that time I have reread it and have given countless copies to friends who have all enjoyed it.
In a way, Horowitz reminds me of Woddy Allen when he still did good movies, after you laugh there is a deeper meaning. He writting is very good and keeps you entertained. Even for someone with little interest in the Civil War this book will keep you interested.
He meets a "hard core" Civil War Reenactor and hangs out with he and his friends and this rekindles his youthfull interest in the Civil War. Along the way go goes through most of the states of the former Confederacy to see how this past war still is present in so many peoples lives, black and white. In the North, unless you are into history, no one cares about the Civil War. Not in the South, the idea of the "Lost Cause" is still such a part of the Southern Psyche. Horowitz captures this very well. The subtitle-"Dispatches from an unfinished Civil War" is really true. This is one book I wish I could give a higher rating than 5 stars.

I picked up this book hoping to discover a Southern odyssey of a sort but instead became very disappointed very soon.
The book promised to take us to every holler and corner of Southern 'unreconstructed,' society. However, the author trained his storytelling on only the most vile, low, weird, and spotty characters. For a book about the Civil War, of all the people he interviewed and visited to make the book, Rob Hodge was the only who shared any knowledge about true Southern history! The book and the author's exploits were a waste of time.
Instead of giving us a very fascinating look into why millions of Southerns fly, "that flag," the author indulges and enhances the incredible Southern stereotype. On doing this, his book is nothing unique.
In one example of the author's ignorance is his tale about the two Civil War monuments that accidentally ended up in the wrong places. It is the tale of the Southern monument that ended up in York, Maine and the yankee one that ended up in SC. Well, as it turns out, this didn't take place, it is a fictional legend.
This book is reserved for a liberal and sarcastic crowd that would base its judgment, polking fun of, and sarcasm on stereotypes and fabricated classless myths.

This is one of my favorite books! It was recommended to me back in 1998 by my history professor and I absolutely loved Horowitz's travels through the South and experiences with Daughter's of the Confederacy, hardcore re-enactors, Rebel flag wavers, and Civil War battle sites. I must admit, while reading I wish I was sitting in the seat next to him experiencing everything he is. It's funny, it's though provoking--at some points it makes me shake my head in shame of the ignorant people he meets. This book is worth buying just for the hilarious descriptions of the war re-enactors and Horowitz's "fake" battle of Gettysburgh! If you're a Civil War buff, you'll want to read this book.

Just started reading the book thus far it is entertaining and delightful. I look forward to my quiet evening reading time everyday. It amazes me how
we continue to get Civil War info. from these wonderful writers.

Simply a fun read. If you are a civil war buff like me you will enjoy reading this John Stosselesque investigative book of Civil War facts, minutia, and why Confederate esprit de corps lives on 142 years after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Mr. Horwitz writes his book as a travelogue through the Civil War South. He recounts his travels as he meets new and interesting people and places, and how they still view the War between the States, as the Civil War is known in the South, as an ongoing struggle. He breaks down the book in chapters pertaining to the Southern states he visited.
The book is full of funny, sad, and informative facts like where and when was the first shot of the Civil War actually fired? And No, it was NOT Fort Sumter. But most important was his analysis of the continuing, living spirit of the Civil War South of 1861-1865. It lives today in a variety of ways that Mr. Horowitz points out and discusses.
All in all a must book for Civil War buffs of all kind. A good solid read, well written and factual. Not a tactics or war strategy manual of unit names and engagements, but rather a human interest book of who and what modern day Dixie is and why it lives on today in Southern people, places and things. I recommend it highly.

I bought this book on the reccomendation of a fellow civil war buff. I was hoping for some fresh insights on the subject of the lost cause and it's continued effect on our (southern) lives. Instead it is a collection of overblown, trite, highly condescending, negative, hateful fiction. I have lived in the south/southwest my entire life (44 yrs) and I have never encountered anyone remotely resembling the ignorant, racist, borderline psychopaths that the author claims to have found on almost every street corner south of Mason-Dixon. This book is not what I expected. I will avoid further works of fiction by Mr. Horwitz.

Tony Horwitz inadvertently sees Confederate Civil War reenactors near his Virginia home which launches him into an adventure across the South, attending reenactments but also comparing the New South to the Old South. He found out that some things have really changed, and some things have hardly changed at all. He looks into race relations, modern Confederate sympathizers, the Confederate flag controversy, and also gives a great history lesson on many parts of the Civil War, throwing in a lot of trivia that I had not read before. The Civil War continues to be a part of a lot of people's daily lives in the Deep Deep South and Horwitz writes with depth, understanding, and a welcome sense of humor. Recommended.

As a Southerner and lifelong American Civil War buff, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tony Horwitz' account of traveling the various Southern states and to get an account of the war from mainly the Southern view. While not an advocate of the South's position, he did seem to be respectful of how some Southerners viewed the war over 140 years later after the war ended.

Horwitz traveled Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas to various Civil War sites and to talk with people on their thoughts of what the war meant to them. While he finds pockets of people who still fight the war, he is appalled that most people do not know or really care to know what happened during 1861-1865.

Among the highlights:

1. How he became interested in the war.
2. His trip to Montgomery, Alabama and the irony of the exhibits on the Civil Rights and the First Capital of the Confederacy.
3. His "Wargasm" trip with Robert Hodge (the character in the absolutely hilarious photo on the book's cover) through several Virginia sites in a matter of a few days.
4. Watching Civil War reenactments at Gettysburg and other battlefields.
5. Touring the Civil War prison in Salisbury NC.

The narrative is smooth, interesting, and flows freely from chapter to chapter. As mentioned earlier, I am a lifelong Civil War buff and was able to visualize several of the battlefields I had visited that Horwitz mentioned in his book. I also enjoyed his insights as a Jew.

A great book to read about how some people still fight and view the war. My only complaint was some of the saucy language. Still, a great read.

Highly recommended. Read and enjoy!

As a Southerner and lifelong American Civil War buff, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tony Horwitz' account of traveling the various Southern states and to get an account of the war from mainly the Southern view. While not an advocate of the South's position, he did seem to be respectful of how some Southerners viewed the war over 140 years later after the war ended.

Horwitz traveled Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas to various Civil War sites and to talk with people on their thoughts of what the war meant to them. While he finds pockets of people who still fight the war, he is appalled that most people do not know or really care to know what happened during 1861-1865.

Among the highlights:

1. How he became interested in the war.
2. His trip to Montgomery, Alabama and the irony of the exhibits on the Civil Rights and the First Capital of the Confederacy.
3. His "Wargasm" trip with Robert Hodge (the character in the absolutely hilarious photo on the book's cover) through several Virginia sites in a matter of a few days.
4. Watching Civil War reenactments at Gettysburg and other battlefields.
5. Touring the Civil War prison in Salisbury NC.

The narrative is smooth, interesting, and flows freely from chapter to chapter. As mentioned earlier, I am a lifelong Civil War buff and was able to visualize several of the battlefields I had visited that Horwitz mentioned in his book. I also enjoyed his insights as a Jew.

A great book to read about how some people still fight and view the war. My only complaint was some of the saucy language. Still, a great read.

Highly recommended. Read and enjoy!

I absolutely loved this book in every way: his descriptions of the outlying towns where the civil war battles took place, the people who live there, the people who reenact the battles, and the travel to and from battlesites. I had to laugh out loud in parts (which I seldom do) and I must admit that when I traveled through Tennessee I actually stopped at a few places that he mentioned in this book.

Especially heart-wrenching was the chapter on Kentucky, "Dying for Dixie." I was in a Tennessee hotel reading this book when I realized that I was about 30 miles away from where the story in that chapter took place, and where Horwitz stayed to research the story. I just had to investigate the scenery. Four years after he wrote this book the town's hotel still stood, with the same swimming pool converted into a dirt-laden track with trees (so that neither black nor white children could argue over who could swim in the pool). The alleged KKK bar at the edge of town still stood as well, and almost every car in the parking lot was an oversized pick-up Dodge with Conferate flags in the back. (I saw more Conferderate flags in Kentucky than in any other state I've traveled in besides Pennsylvania. Not even Georgia holds that record!) The town itself had a boarded-up downtown street of two blocks, with an old silo dominating the skyline. It wasn't a town anyone would want included in a vacation packet.

Most of all, I enjoyed his descriptions of the people who live to relive the Civil War. This is a great contemporary American studies book written in a humorous way to make it more entertaining...and before you are done laughing (or screaming) you've finished the entire book.

I absolutely loved this book in every way: his descriptions of the outlying towns where the civil war battles took place, the people who live there, the people who reenact the battles, and the travel to and from battlesites. I had to laugh out loud in parts (which I seldom do) and I must admit that when I traveled through Tennessee I actually stopped at a few places that he mentioned in this book.

Especially heart-wrenching was the chapter on Kentucky, "Dying for Dixie." I was in a Tennessee hotel reading this book when I realized that I was about 30 miles away from where the story in that chapter took place, and where Horwitz stayed to research the story. I just had to investigate the scenery. Four years after he wrote this book the town's hotel still stood, with the same swimming pool converted into a dirt-laden track with trees (so that neither black nor white children could argue over who could swim in the pool). The alleged KKK bar at the edge of town still stood as well, and almost every car in the parking lot was an oversized pick-up Dodge with Conferate flags in the back. (I saw more Conferderate flags in Kentucky than in any other state I've traveled in besides Pennsylvania. Not even Georgia holds that record!) The town itself had a boarded-up downtown street of two blocks, with an old silo dominating the skyline. It wasn't a town anyone would want included in a vacation packet.

Most of all, I enjoyed his descriptions of the people who live to relive the Civil War. This is a great contemporary American studies book written in a humorous way to make it more entertaining...and before you are done laughing (or screaming) you've finished the entire book.

Tony Horwitz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, takes to the road yet again, traveling from state to state in the American south, delivering one of the best guides to contemporary American attitudes on a specialized subject that's ever been written. In large part the intelligently penned and entirely addictive Confederates in the Attic is a mythbusters for the Civil War crowd. I know Tony Horwitz, author of Baghdad Without A Map, didn't intend it that way, but how else can you see this enjoyable travelogue when every chapter dispels at least one nugget of falsely cherished American folklore?

Permit me to mention but a few:

General Robert E. Lee, that beloved "marble man" iconic hero of admirers the world over, someone oft-billed as a non-slave owning Virginian, actually owned slaves until the end of 1863.

The infamous Hornet's Nest at Shiloh was in reality not the centerpoint of the battle, and in fact was among the least hotly contested and bloody spots on the sprawling field.

The first shots of the war were, as everyone knows, fired in Charleston Harbor, but not at Fort Sumter in April 1861, rather in January of that year at a Northern steamer called Star of the West.

Henry Wirz, the infamous commandant of the Andersonville "concentration camp" in southern Georgia was executed as much for his refusal to implicate his superiors as for his supposed mismanagement of the Hell-ish camp.

Horwitz also refers to Traveller, Lee's most famous mount (more favored by the General than his secondary steed, Ajax) as a "she". Assuming this was not a typo, then how many knew General Lee rode through the war on a mare?

But this book is much more than a mere exercise in mythbusting. It stands as an exploration of how the Civil War still affects the culture in which we Americans live today. One thing Horowitz exposed was how ignorant of the conflict too many modern Americans are. In one of his final chapters he revealed that even in Alabama, heart of Dixie, only half of college-age individuals could name a single Civil War battle. Horwitz's meeting with an Georgia-based representative of a pro-Confederate heritage special interest lobby pointed out the thought-provoking fact that those who revile the supposed racism inherent in the flying of the Stars and Bars should bear in mind that our own national flag, Old Glory herself, flew over legalized slavery for nearly half its history as a symbol.

And those sorts of factoids are what makes Confederates in the Attic so compelling. It opens the mind even as it interests a reader on a more personal and broader level. It's a lot of fun to tag along through the pages of the longest chapter of the book, the winsomely named "Civil Wargasm" and be a party to stories of camping in the dead of night on Antietam's Bloody Lane or to pore over paragraphs concerning the final resting place of Thomas Jackson's amputated arm, but it's even more rewarding to wrestle with the philosophical challenges one encounters scores of times in Horwitz's four-hundred pages.

Something else I gleaned from the two days I spent reading this unique book. Those people most Americans would most readily accuse of racism---Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate flag aficionados, Deep Southern figures with much regional pride---are often the most open-minded and least racist sorts out there. Consequently, as Horwitz's journey to a mostly black high school in southern Alabama demonstrates, racism and phobic misunderstanding of others' of divergent ethnicity is by no means confined to those of European heritage.

Confederates in the Attic might just be the best book I've read this year.

Mr. Horwitz a pulitzer prize winner author decides to dive in to the South's fascination of why we think we're better than the rest of the country/world. It begins slow, but picks up speed and if you've lived or was raised in the South then I bet you've met at least someone similar to those that Horwitz came across in his journey. His objective writing is to be commended, he could have easily made fun of most of the people and felt sorry for them, but he states "How can you condemn and ridicule someone so passionate about a lifestyle that God himself might have chosen as to where his residence would be". Its a good read, little drawn out but I'd recommend it only if you've lived in the South. Otherwise you might just "not get it"

Mr. Horwitz a pulitzer prize winner author decides to dive in to the South's fascination of why we think we're better than the rest of the country/world. It begins slow, but picks up speed and if you've lived or was raised in the South then I bet you've met at least someone similar to those that Horwitz came across in his journey. His objective writing is to be commended, he could have easily made fun of most of the people and felt sorry for them, but he states "How can you condemn and ridicule someone so passionate about a lifestyle that God himself might have chosen as to where his residence would be". Its a good read, little drawn out but I'd recommend it only if you've lived in the South. Otherwise you might just "not get it"

If you enjoy the social and societal aspects of history then you will love this book. Horwitz takes the reader on a journey through the contemporary South and discovers that, in many ways, the Civil War is still being waged. The reader will be amazed by the inside look into the world of Civil War reenactments and shocked by the way racism and sectionalism still pervade certain parts of the Rural South. The dialogue in this book, along with Horwitz's humor and flowing prose, come together to make "Confederates in the Attic" an extremely enjoyable read.

The service 1st of all is wonderful and accurate..
THe product is for my husband who is blind and this is his entertainment
he loved the book and other aids you have

Thank you

The service 1st of all is wonderful and accurate..
THe product is for my husband who is blind and this is his entertainment
he loved the book and other aids you have

Thank you

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.

This book is hilarious. You get to meet some incredible characters who seem too good to be true, but they are actual people. Maybe even your neighbors. A quick read, Confederates in the Attic is perfect for a lot of different readers. Those who appreciate good travel writing will love this book. Those who seek out historical adventures will love this book. Those who like books that take a closer look on parts of our society and culture that aren't usually discussed will like this book. People who think the CSA flag should fly in as many places as possible will love this book. People who think honoring Robert E. Lee as a national hero is offensive to the American Dream will love this book. Because, honestly, there's something for everyone. And the title says it all. This book makes it clear that there are Civil War skirmishes across our nation every day.

Marina Kushner
Author
The Truth About Caffeine: How Companies That Promote It Deceive Us and What We Can Do about It

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 with the "hardcores", Horwitz allows himself to be changed throughout the process, and the emotions still palpable from tragic scenes like Andersonville. Horwitz spends a lot of times in classrooms discussing what he finds, and this brings up the opportunity to discuss racial issues and the misperception the site of a Confederate flag might bring, in the context of poor men fighting for their freedom who did not own or want to own slaves. One of the interesting things that comes out of Horwitz research is that the Northern armies were heavily populated by Irish soldiers, while the Southern soldiers were more likely to see themselves as first or second generation British or Scots.

No doubt these ideas continue to be divisive, as Horwitz notes, but the need to keep this history alive is important. Those that reenact it are helping a great deal

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.

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.

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.

It's kind of strange, how I came across this book. While taking the bus to college one day, I saw someone reading it for class, and decided to ask a few questions. Her capsule review piqued my interest, and so I put it on my wish list. I knew only the most basic details when I got it for my birthday, and with no small expectation, I read it.

I was blown away.

Horwitz's book defies easy summary or pigeonholing into a single genre. On its face, it's about people from both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line who carry a torch for the Confederacy. However, it's also about, politics, race relations, and nostalgia. Especially nostalgia. It often reads like a travelogue, participant observation, and Civil War history all at once.

This is not a scholarly work, and Horwitz makes no claim as such; this is very much a personal journey, heavily influenced by his own youthful obsession with the Civil War. His sympathies are never in doubt, and the dialogue of the people he interviews tell the reader more about his POV than his own assertions. His tone is by turns ironic, bewildered, and humourous, and yet also self-deprecating; furthermore, his constant anger at the commercialization of the South reveals him to be no less a romantic than those he interviews.

If it seems like the neo-Confederates he mentions are ubiquitous, it's only because he seeks them out, expressly to guage these lingering feelings, and how they mesh with the modern world. He is never disrespectful towards his subjects, even when their opinions appall him, and you get the impression that this is a man who's deeply interested in talking to people, in laying open human experience.

In short, this is a great book: funny, disturbing, touching, and insightful. *Highly* recommended. I imagine I'll be putting more money in Horwitz's pockets real soon.

A disclaimer: I did not complete this book. Got about halfway and lost interest. This book is both boring and trite, and frankly doesn't shed much light on why the conferacy continues to facinate so may people in my opinion. In this case you can actually judge the book by its cover - the ugly guy on the cover is a good indication of what you will read in this book - a sordid story.

Not only a disappointment, but also a condescending affront and disservice to the overwhelming majority of southerners. I had hoped for some new insight into the cultural phenomena associated with the confederacy, but what I got was a collage of stories - many of which frankly seemed contrived or at least highly embellished - from an isolated and irrelevant fringe of southern society. As a native southerner (50 plus years of living and traveling throughout the region), I honestly did not recognize the south that he describes, and have never once met a single character of the ilk that this book focuses on. Yes, they do surely exist and most southerners are at least somewhat interested in the confederacy (after all, its part our heritage), but the author leaves you with the impression that the fringe characters that he describes are as common and ubiquitous as the kudzu that covers much of the south. This is a gross distortion of reality and simply does not jibe with reality. What was the author thinking when he wrote this? I honestly have to question his intellectual honesty and motives in writing this book. Do yourself a favor and spend your money elsewhere.

In the masterful "Confederates in the Attic" Tony Horwitz explores the complicated state of civil war remembrance and finds that, despite time and effort, the issues and feelings that were being fought over then are still very much an issue today. Civil rights? State rights? Class barriers? All subjects that continue to be hotly contested today, and all were front and center during the civil war.

It all begins when Horwitz and his wife are woken up one morning by the sound of gunshots outside their Virginia home. Looking out the window, Horwitz sees a troup of men dressed in Confederate uniforms acting out a battle scene for a camera. Intrigued, he gets dressed and heads outside, where he meets Robert Lee Hodge, a diehard civil war buff (the term "re-enactor" is an insult to him because of his devotion) who is part of a radical group of men that spend nearly every spare moment of their lives getting the right look, the right clothes, and the right surroundings to get the "period rush" that comes from bringing history to life. Looking around, Horwitz realized that they are not alone in their fanatical devotion to Confederate history, and he sets out on a road trip through the south to try and understand why the civil war is still so prevalent in the minds and hearts of southern people. His interviews with countless people uncover ties of pride, family history, nostalgia for time gone by, and more that keep them tethered to the past in a way no other historical event has done. And what people! The cast of characters that Horwitz encounter is so fascinating that they could only be real. Among them you'll meet some daughters of the Confederacy, former civil rights activists, a Scarlett O'Hara impersonator who caters mostly to Japanese tourists, a recruit officer for the Ku Klux Klan, the last living Confederate widow, and many more. The portraits of the people are perhaps the most fascinating part of the book, and it is to Horwitz's credit that he fleshes them out into three-dimensional beings as opposed to caricatures used to prove a point. It is also good that he gives equal time to all sides of the argument (e.g. In a Kentucky town divided by a murder case based on race Horwitz interviews the white families and the black families involved, and provides the reader with their takes on the case, the town's history and how it may have played a role, and their reactions to the outcome of the trial). Horwitz also explores the falsities of memory that come from civil war idealism. The aforementioned Kentucky town takes pride in its "rebel" history and is somehow blissfully unaware that Kentucky fought on the Union side during the war. At each battle sight he visits he meets historians who are on the verge of giving up when it comes to correcting the history books -- legend, it seems, is more interesting than fact.

"Confederates in the Attic" is quite a ride through the American landscape and the complicated nature of its inhabitants. In my history class we had to read three chapters for a homework assignment and I felt utterly compelled to finish the rest of the book (it's that interesting). It's a great read for the civil war buff and the farb alike.

As a Union reenactor (who has been in the hobby for (only) three years) I have often been amazed at the passion the confederates have at the "battles." I have been told that the Rebs out number the Yanks 4 to 1 in the hobby - I believe this to be true, especially at reenactments held in the South. Given the humorously intense cover photograph of "hardcore" reenactor, Robert Lee Lodge, who is a frequent character in the book, I fully expected Tony Horwitz to offer an elitist snide commentary on southern culture and especially the hobby. However, Horwitz does a brilliant job of simple observation - I found myself gaining a fuller understanding of the motivations and why they're still fighting the war & a fresh perspective on southern culture. The book also offers insight on what everyone in the hobby already knows, and that's the plethora of bad, wrong, and misleading information available on nearly every aspect of the Civil War. Every reenactment will find endless "experts" debating on the this and thats of every nuance and detail of the conflict...it truly is an endlessly fascinating topic!
I heartily recommend this book to every Union reenactor & to anyone who is curious about the subculture of the Civil War.

Private Hellekson
PA 23rd Birney's Zouaves!
(not a hardcore group - but not farby either!)

I was recommended this book by one of my students, and I wanted to see the Civil War from the perspective of the present. Living in the DC area, I've visited Manassas to see the battlefield there. I've also been fascinated by this historical roots of modern racial conflict. Usually that takes me toward Reconstruction era and Civil Rights area history. But in this book I gained vital insight into why southerners hold their heritage so dear.

Horwitz book starts with his experience shadowing "hardcore" confederate civil war reenactors. Led by Robert Hodge Lee, these men try to relive the harrowing details of civil war company life. What would seems strange and weird becomes understandable as Horwitz shares the period rush that they gain by taking on the lifestyle of a prior era. Reenacting for these men becomes a way to transport themselves to a simpler, more vital time.

Other reviewers here have commented on how Horwitz does a masterful job of visiting the battlefields and finding new meaning in the historical details. Whether that's revising the traditional view of the Shiloh battlefield or visiting the site of a horrifying confederate prison, Horwitz shares views that helps make the reality of the Civil War palpable for modern readers.

For me, the highlight of this book were Horwitz's interactions with the quirky characters of present day Confederates. He takes us inside the minds of United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans meetings and representatives of various upholders of the Confederate cross. So often, you see how history gets distorted with polarized views that make interpretation of history a battleground for present events. Low-income southerners hold onto The Cause as a mythological better past. We also see how history can become a product with various southern cities using The War as a marketing tool. And juxtaposed to these views are some of the black citizens of the south who still often find themselves resenting separate and unequal conditions.

Not every visit in this book compelled me. The visit to Atlanta describing the Japanese fascination with Gone With the Wind got a little long in spots, probably because I'm not into the movie. But I gained a new appreciation for the virtues and vices of the south and I'll be able to look at confederates with more compassion even as I continue to pursue black progressive causes.

Strong work, and I hope folks take the time to read it and ponder the issues it raises.

4.5 stars

--SD

A fine, tight book. I like writing that lets you look over someone's shoulder, without whispering in my ear about how I should feel or think. Plus, this author has the gumption to go places most of us won't go, so the text delivers some fascinating over-the-shoulder looks.

First off, remember, this is a travel log, not a comprehensive history of the civil war and aftermath. Although, the argument can be made that this is more of set of non-partisan cultural observations than a true travel book.
After living in Nashville for two years, I started reading about the 19th century south. This is a wonderful meander through that time and place in addition to melding past, present and future. I have never participated in any civil war activities, but I wondered why the South was so observant of their veterans for a lost cause. This book takes a giant leap in understanding this behavior. In addition, it's a highly entertaining and addicting page-turner. Buy it.

An excellent book, clearly explaining what the South is and how it got that way. Absolutley impartial to either side of a very partial topic, Tony Horowitz has managed a balanced, honest look at the modern South. A book that is at once a history text, a sociological treatise and a comedy of errors. Anyone interested in the Civil War, civil rights and modern racism should read this book.

Overall, I thought this was a terrific, terrific book. Never before have I read something that deals with the past, present, and future as this book does. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz is great because it deals with how the Civil War affected everyone today. Horwitz goes from Civil War battle to Civil War battle, and gives a total description of each fight. He meets up with present day reenactors of the fights, and they are often very insightful. When Horwitz was at Shiloh, the groundskeeper of the battlesight gave him a tour that blew away several myths that I believed. It was amazing to read 'the real story' of the battle, not just the short, textbook version.
I also liked how Horwitz addressed the issue of civil rights and racism. He interviewed blacks, whites, poor, rich, high school dropouts, and the supremely educated. Each person had something to say, and Horwitz allows them to say it. For example, there was a big ruckus when a man was murdered for flying the Confederate flag in Mississippi. Horwitz interviews the family of the man killed, the killer, the police, the citizens, and even the high school principal of the man who was killed. Horwitz dove deep into this book, and gave a terrific read. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the Civil War, but also would like to know about the South in general. I learned a lot about the South, something I didn't know much about before. It stunned me how the Civil War still affects everyone living today. Horwitz chose to write about this, and it makes for a great read.

In the book, Horowitz explors the landscape the Civil War with a rather unusual sidekick: a hardcore confederate reenactor. This "Hardcore" at first seems like the comic-relief of the book, but as the story progresses, we begin to see a person that is deep, intellectual and sensitive. He's still extremely weird, eating half-rotten sowbelly, sleeping in the rain and walking on day-old blisters, but he's no longer a caricature. On a side note, Robert Lee Hodge, the "Hardcore," was the basis of a character in my play, To Kill An M-113 Creature. The other thing I found fascinating about Confederates in the Attic was the look at the lingering effects of the Civil War. Horowitz visited Richmond, VA during the debates over raising a statue of Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue. He went to meetings of the Daughters of the Confederacy and inner city schools in Atlanta and a town divided over a murdered kid who flew a rebel flag on Martin Luther King day. He also discovered that many cherished battlefields are being encroached by expanding suburbs and strip malls. History, it seems, is losing out to developers and government lowlifes. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement or reenacting. It's one of my favorites.

Tony Horwitz's book is a humorous, disturbing, and utterly compelling look at the South's everlasting obsession with the Civil War. I started becoming a Civil War "fanatic" at the age of 7 when I first visited Lookout Mountain, part of the Chattanooga Battlefield Park in Tennessee. I've been hooked ever since. Like Horwitz, I can't explain why so many people in the South (including me) are so fascinated by the bloody war that cost over 600,000 dead. The wounds left behind by the war are still painful to many, and needless to say in many Southern communities reconstruction just didn't take.

Wanting to understand the Civil War's lingering impact on Southern society, Horwitz set off on a ten-state journey where he met a variety of strange characters, like Rob (whose pictured on the cover), a "Super Hardcore" Confederate living historian who marched for miles, drilled for hours with his other "Super Hardcore" comrades, and slept in the mud on rainy nights just to see what the soldiers 130+ years ago went through. The best part of the book is the long section on the "Civil Wargasm", which is achieved when Rob and Horwitz tour as many Civil War sites as possible in one week, while dressed entirely in reproduction Civil War outfits.

This book reveals in detail how the bitter feelings over the South's defeat in the war still remain strong among many, and debates over states rights, racism, and preserving heritage are causing tragic violence and divided communities. Horwitz leaves no stone unturned in his quest to learn the truth about why the war was fought, and why so many are STILL fighting it today. It is simply impossible to put this book down once you start, and it's an adventure you'll never forget. Highly recommended!

Truth in America is getting harder to find. Corporations devote enormous energy to glossy advertising schemes while dumping their wares on na�ve, product-hungry consumers. Much of our media is now comprised of propagandists rather than journalists. And our political leaders continually "spin" the truth to suit their own agendas. As Tony Horwitz discovered, there's also a small but fanatical cult of southerners who are putting their own spin on the Civil War. I'm not convinced these folks are "seriously bad news for the rest of America," as one reviewer noted (personally, I'm more concerned about our elected leaders). But they provide additional evidence that truth is a commodity that's increasingly distorted and marketed for both political and commercial ends.

This book was written several years ago, and has garnered extraordinary praise. I'll just offer that's it's one of the most well-written and enjoyable books I've read in years. Horwitz has an easy, fluid writing style. He lays down anecdotes of personal meetings and interviews with reenactors, museum proprietors, motel desk clerks, as well as more than a few southern reactionaries who insist on resurrecting the "Lost Cause" and venting hostility toward Yankees, an epithet that most of them use synonymously with liberals, Jews, the NAACP, the Federal government, etc. etc. Despite his bemusement during these encounters, Horwitz avoids patronizing these people. He allows them to vent, gently probes their rationality, then parts as a friend. It's not an easy thing to do, but Horwitz is a trained journalist and manages to walk the tightrope. The only time he unravels is, ironically, when he meets a black woman who teaches in Alabama. Her defense of the radical, anti-Semitic leader Louis Farakkhan, and Horwitz's outraged reaction, is one of the book's climactic moments.

The centerpiece of the book is the "Civil Wargasm" with hardcore reenactor Robert Lee Hodge. Hodge is sort of a Dean Moriarty to Horwitz's Sal Paradise, without the saintly aura that Kerouac's hero radiated. I'm not sure why Horwitz elevates Hodge to star status (his photograph graces the cover), since he lacks the dimension and irony of many of the more minor characters in the book. He's a fetishist who tries to travel back in time in an endless quest for the mystical Nirvana of Confederana, chattering obsessively in his own slang about "farbs" (less-than-authentic reenactors), and smearing his beard with salt pork. He reminds me of some of the Deadheads I once knew, circumventing the real world in their obsessive search for that perfect Jerry Garcia guitar solo.

The 5 stars given this book by most Amazon reviewers are well deserved. It is at turns humorous, poignant, and tragic. I haven't read such a compelling mix of history and sociology since the novel and film "Little Big Man." As a liberal Yankee whose great-great-grandfather died for the Union cause, it's hard for me to understand just why race, religion, and the rebel flag are so important "down there." I still don't fully understand, and probably never will. But I thank Tony Horwitz for running the gauntlet, staying true to his values, and offering a glimpse into another strange, overlooked corner of this wacky nation.

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 some people, the Civil War never ended. Most of them live down South, so author Tony Horwitz decided to visit them and write a book about the experience. One of the most interesting characters in his book appears on the front cover. (No, that photo is not an antique.) Robert Lee Hodge has dedicated his life to portraying Confederate soldiers in the most authentic way possible, to the extent that he actually starves himself to "do the bloat": to get that bloated look he saw in Brady photos of the dead. Horwitz falls in with some pretty "hardcore" characters here. One of the most enjoyable parts of the book was reading about the "Civil Wargasm," visiting as many battlefields in as short an amount of time as possible in order to get a historical rush. Horwitz is pretty fair in his treatment of the myriad characters he encounters on his journey, and this is a very enjoyable book. If you're interested in the Civil War phenomenon that's exploded in the last two decades, and in how the South still survives, read this book.