A book club selection. Can't wait to hear the discussion by this yankee group! A good read

The book cover introduces Tony Horwitz to the reader as a journalist who has published in such prominent American journals as: "The New Yorker", "The Wall Street Journal", and "Harper's". From the book cover and from reading Confederates in the Attic the reader also learns that Mr. Horwitz has published similar books on different topics, e.g., "Baghdad without a Road Map" and "Blue Latitudes". Mr. Horwitz and his family live in Virginia in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Mr. Horwitz's topic is "searching out the places and people who kept the memory of the conflict [the American Civil War] alive in the present day" (p. 18). Mr. Horwitz purposefully sought to immerse himself in different subcultures that have grown up around and that are very preoccupied with the memory of the American Civil War. He then planned to write an expose on his experience.

Initially, Tony Horwitz does not purport to have any thesis. Yet, a thesis seems to develop of its own accord during the course of Horwitz's journey. Horwitz is discussing the battle of Shiloh with Mr. Stacy Allen, the Chief Historian for Shiloh National Military Park, when he first reveals the essence of his thesis. Allen remarks: `"Each generation sees the War differently, and that's why interest in it will never die'" (p. 180). Allen goes on to say that even the veterans reinterpreted the War differently as they grew older. They tended to put greater emphasis on generals and tactics and forget the horror that was battle. Later, Horwitz discovers that many modern scholars "were rethinking numerous battles and questioning the reliability of long revered [and possibly inaccurate or self-servingly distorted] sources" (p. 182). Horwitz calls Shelby Foote for his interpretation of Allen's hypothesis. Foote makes a succinct statement that explains America's continued interest in the Civil War and stands as Horwitz's thesis. Shelby Foote tells Horwitz that, each generation must "interpret the Civil War by its own light" (p. 183).

Horwitz begins his book by recounting his own childhood fascination with the Civil War. After meeting some contemporary "living historians," Horwitz decides to investigate this national fascination for himself. As Horwitz travels, he discovers that the Civil War has been reinterpreted by today's generations in many legitimate and some not so apparently legitimate ways. Horwitz writes: "[f]or many Southerners I'd met, remembrance of the War had become a talisman against modernity, an emotional lever for their reactionary politics" (p. 386). Still others are like Robert Lee Hodge, a "super hardcore" period re-enactor, who seeks a "period rush:" the Holy Grail of re-enactor experiences. Many of the Horwitz's more memorable moments involve Rob Lee Hodge, especially in the chapter entitled "The Civil Wargasm." In "The Civil Wargasm," Horwitz and Hodge cram as much Civil War history and geography as one can possibly fit into a single, five-day period.

Others choose to remember the War in their own way. Re-enactor Karen Meinhold professes to mourn for the Union dead as a Union widow. Another, Wolfgang Hochbruck: a German national, is fascinated with the American Civil War, and this led him to establish a reenactment unit in Stuttgart, Germany, `modeled on a German-American unit, the 3rd Missouri. . . . [wherein, all members] portrayed privates. [Without irony Hochbruck said:] "Our democratic traditions must be remembered"' (p. 186). Horwitz also meets Jimmy Olger who explains that true Southerners had a connection with the land that was alien to Northerners and it was a connection they were willing to die for. Horwitz meets scores of such people who are seeking their own interpretation of the War.

Throughout his travels, Horwitz encounters the unresolved issue of racism. The issue of racism figured prominently in Horwitz's decision to visit Guthrie, Kentucky, after a local youth named Michael Westerman was gunned down for displaying the "Stars and Bars." Horwitz notes that racism, white and black, was very prevalent in Guthrie. The racist, white citizens of Guthrie seem to have forgotten that Kentucky declared itself for the Union during the Civil War and beckoned back to a heritage they could not properly call their own. They had reinterpreted their past. According to Westerman's wife, Westerman flew the Confederate flag on his truck, because he thought it "looked cool" (p. 110). Nevertheless, Westerman was made a martyr by racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nation. Westerman was laid to rest as "one more casualty in a long line of Confederate dead . . ." (pp. 111-112). The truth of Westerman's life was obscured by the needs of the groups that professed to honor him. Horwitz sees this same perversion in many who claim to honor the memory of the Civil War.

While touring in Columbia, South Carolina, amidst the furious debate surrounding the use of the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina's state flag, Horwitz realized that heritage ". . . obviously meant very different things to different people. For the Sons of the Confederacy I'd met in North Carolina, it meant the heritage of their ancestor's valor and sacrifice. . . . [For others,] it was the heritage of segregation and its dismantling over the past forty years" (p. 80).

Horwitz visits Fitzgerald, Georgia, and sees a glimmer of how the South might have been without the "Southerners' demonization of Reconstruction, or by the Northerners' smug stereotypes of a Klan-driven, Jim Crow South" (p. 334). The town's emblem is comprised of two soldiers, one Blue one Gray, shaking hands over a map of Georgia. It has an inscription that reads: `"Blood that mingled in war was here united in brotherhood'" (p. 334).

Horwitz concludes his jaunt with a whim of nostalgia. He says: "It's time to put away childish things, at least until my own child is old enough to play with them, too" (p. 388). Then, he suggests, it will be time for a new generation to interpret the Civil War "by its own light" (p. 183).

Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War offers a fascinating trip through American history. This is the second book by Horwitz that I have read. His Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before is written in the same comedic vein, but I must admit this book was given to me as a gift. I would not have bought either book on my own.

Horwitz's book makes several contributions to American history. Horwitz's digression into the Westerman case is very revealing. Horwitz seems to deal even handedly with both sides of the issue and provides the reader genuine insight to a problem America has yet to resolve: racism. Horwitz also exposes how many who profess to honor their ancestor's heritage, in fact, have reinterpreted their heritage to fit their contemporary feelings. Few people today realize that during the 1950s and 60s some Southern state legislatures, e.g. South Carolina and Georgia, incorporated images from the Civil War into their state flags. No doubt, these lawmakers intended for these images to be inflammatory; it was their way of protesting against Federally imposed Civil Rights programs. Knowing when and what these lawmakers did enables the reader to discern the lie at the heart of their arguments today.

What is noticeably absent in "Confederates in the Attic" are footnotes and a bibliography. Horwitz makes some claims that need confirmation. As a teacher, I would like to know that what I take from his book to use in class is not hearsay. Nevertheless, I do recommend "Confederates in the Attic" for its anecdotes.

I believe Horwitz is incorrect when he suggests that the resurgent interest in ancestors who fought in the Civil War can be traced back to Alex Haley's 1975 book "Roots". He says his own interest started in the 1960s: as did mine. Why would he conclude others discovered the War or genealogy at some more belated date? My own curiosity was piqued by my effort to earn a Boy Scout merit badge in the late 60s; wherein, I discovered my gggrandfather had fought for the Union as a lieutenant in the 47th Mounted Kentucky Rifles. In addition to being prompted to read several books about the Civil War, I stood in the book stacks at a local university looking for family members by thumbing through Kentucky cemetery listings compiled by others interested in genealogy in the 1920s and 30s. Genealogy has been around for a while, and I cannot believe that Horwitz is ignorant of that fact.

The 1960s marked the centennial of the war, and it is a documented fact that the Civil War Centennial, 1961 to 1965, did much to rekindled American interests in the Civil War. For example, Bruce Catton published his trilogy on the war during this period, and "Across Five Aprils" and "Red Badge of Courage" are no longer the only two popular books available for the novice reader. Likewise, "Civil War Times Illustrated" started as a new publication to meet this interest with a product to satisfy the curiosity. Furthermore, Horwitz ignores the impact on America's perception of war after Vietnam. "Glory" and Ken Burn's "Civil War" are just as much a reflection of post-Vietnam American society as they are an examination of war in 19th century America.

Horwitz's attitude is also troublesome. In this book, as he does in others, Horwitz portrays many people as buffoons. When he does this, he comes across as boorish, condescending and arrogant. I also question why he leaves Robert Lee Hodge out of his acknowledgements. Hodge is his associate throughout most of the book and is perhaps a major factor in Horwitz's decision to take this journey, but Horwitz does not mention Hodge in his acknowledgements.

Another weakness that Horwitz unfortunately exhibits is an inability to take a position on the war. Is the war a matter for serious discussion and interpretation, or is it a matter that should be relegated to the attic with other childhood fantasies? Horwitz equivocates on this matter. One moment he concludes his journey by suggesting that his foray to understand the Civil War and why it fascinates Americans is a childish foray that should be put away with other children's toys when one matures. The next moment he cites Robert Penn Warren and suggests understanding the Civil War is a "rite of passage" for all Americans. Horwitz does not make a decision.

Confederates in the Attic is chock filled with controversy. Journalist Tony Horwitz, interested since childhood in the Civil War, spent nearly a year trekking through battle sites, hanging around with re-enactors, and talking to lots of folks about the Confederacy and the Union to put together this appropriately dubbed "travelogue," published just over ten years ago (in 1998). The content, including the statistic (p 126) "There were [then] over 40,000 reenactors nationwide; one survey named reenacting the fastest-growing hobby in America," supports the contention that interest in the Civil War remains high. Horwitz includes lots of facts, like (p 47) "620,000 men [ ] would die in the four-year struggle...," (p 63) "A third of all Africans brought to this country as slaves first touched American soil in Charleston...," (p 178) "...bayonets and sabers accounted for only one half of 1 percent of wounds in the Civil War," and (p 205) "It was, in fact, the mass slaughter of the Civil War that had led to [Memorial Day's] creation." While that kind of information is interesting, what will stick with me longer are the pro-Confederacy/anti-African-American statements spewed by a number of his interviewees, like: (p 80) "This isn't hate, it's just not wanting to mix your seed with a different race," (p 82) "Blacks are a primitive race, not as intelligent as we are," (p 99) `"Slavery was not all that bad...A lot of people were quite happy to be living on large plantations...Blacks just need to get over slavery...You can't live in the past," and (p 152) `"What has dismayed me so much is the behavior of blacks. They are fulfilling every dire prophecy the Ku Klux Klan made. It's no longer safe to be on the streets in black neighborhoods. They are acting as if the utter lie about blacks being somewhere between ape and man were true."' The thing that makes me most uneasy is this-if Horwitz did not intentionally include the most racist, controversial statements he could find, thereby ignoring some of the more rational seeming ones, the state of the South as relates to race relations would appear to be pretty scary. Better: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, The Good Rain by Timothy Egan and Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.

My favorite book of late. Horwitz tells a great story. For me, as a new comer to the South, it puts it all together. I recommend it to all of our house guests and bought an extra copy for the guest cotage.

I enjoyed this book in the same way I enjoy Bill Bryson's books which this one reminded me of. Horwitz lets his interest in the Civil War lead him on a tour of battlefields and historic sites, and he narrates his encounters with humor and zest. I read most of this book sitting by the pool this summer, and I devoured it quickly as it was terribly entertaining. Like Bryson's books, this one is populated with such colorful characters that you may find yourself wondering if your leg is being pulled. Most of the episodes will bring a laugh or a smile, but (again like Bryson) others are sad or even disturbing. As such, the book is a bit uneven, careening from a hilarious night spent on a battlefield under a swarm of mosquitoes to an uncomfortable passage describing a shouting match between Horwitz and a schoolteacher, each of whom brands the other a racist. I see from many of the reviews that some people found this book offensive, especially some Southerners. As a Southerner myself, I did wonder how he found such oddball characters at every turn, but I can't say as I found the book offensive, and I have been known to launch the occasional tirade over the media's and Hollywood's apparent obsession with portraying Southerners as ignorant, inbred, racists. I wasn't offended by this book but rather found it an interesting, entertaining, quick read. If you're looking for a profound analysis of Southern culture, this is not the book for you, but if you want a fun read that will make you smile while sometimes providing food for thought (a la Bryson), you might want to try this one on for size.

This book, while it is not really about the Civil War itself, gives, at time, more history of that great conflagration than many of the books whose sole theme is the war. Here we see the war through the eyes of a man whose ancestry is Eastern Russia and whose grandfather didn't arrive on our shores until the 1880s. Yet he seems to have a love and understanding of the Civil War better than that of many of the people who people were here since the Mayflower. And that is sad - and sadder still is the lack of learning of this war and history in general that our kids are getting today as mentioned in the book of teens in southern Alabama, where history now starts in 1877.

Follow Tony Horowitz as he takes us from Petersburg through to Gettysburg and all around the South revisiting places that were touched by that war and how, in many cases, that war is still going on.

I read Tony Horwitz's reporting on Civil War reenactors in "The New Yorker" many years ago and carried around the impression that the book that grew out of the article was more of the same. I thought it would be about the reenactors north and south of the Mason - Dixon Line, but it heads beyond that in a very provocative direction. After falling in with a group of Confederate reenactors he finds filming outside his home in Virginia one day, Horwitz, who shared a love of Civil War study with his father growing up, realizes that the interest in returning again and again to the battles is significant of the fact that America has never gotten over that conflict. Especially, he suggests, the South has not.

Following up on his adventure of "spooning" with the reenactors, journalist Horwitz launched one of his great road trips (see "A Voyage Long and Strange" and "Blue Latitudes"), traveling throughout the South in search of Civil War landmarks and how their history bears upon the present. He explores the controversy over the Confederate flag, visits Shelby Foote who comes off edgier than his avuncular appearance in Ken Burns' PBS documentary series, tours the often gaudy "Gone With the Wind" theme that buoys modern day Atlanta but muddies actual history, visits countless local museums, traces the rise of the modern Civil Rights movement, meets the last living Confederate widow and various heritage organizations, bumps into the "states' rights" argument and ends up reenacting back on the battlefields with a renewed appreciation for the soldiers' experience on the front. Horwitz follows each trail as it rises in front of him, delivering solid journalistic reporting and research in a narrative that is by turns witty, respectfully somber and always humane.

As the descendant of a Union soldier who pushed off to California after being mustered out, I never understood the allegiance to the Confederate flag and icons that to me flatly represented racism. Horwitz has helped me dig deeper, get at the pluralities and personal nature of the issues, but he also makes clear that the conflict is far from over. He quotes Faulkner: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

With a plucky and flavorful writing style for digging into the sincerity of the Civil War years, Horowitz' rambles throughout the South are stunning, humorous and most of all educational of these turbulent years.

Tony shadows locals, goes it alone, and falls in with whoever is in his path while uncovering the true underlying meanings of this violent time period.
Weaving the past with the present (published late 1990's) the emotional and mental landscape has a common denominator.

Balancing good-natured situations from his own travels with the heartfelt inner feelings of all whom he encounters, there is much to be learned of the Civil War with this spin of journalism.
Engaging and brilliant.

Side bar--Tony let's do this same format for the Oregon Trail. Lot of history there. I'll catch up with you in Wyoming!

The 1860's really isn't that long ago, but it might as well been in another galaxy, What has been distilled for pragmatic purposes from Civil war history ?, Reenactors ?. This book is Civil war LIGHT, not a serious historical look from a 1990's point of view. The chapters aren't cohesive and the point of the book is mute. Furthermore, considering the Author's other books extensive topics, "Farb"-errific. Curiosities I was left with were: What were the Civil war terms of surrender ?, How did the Civil war tie into the Jim Crow south ?, Was this a backlash against emancipation or rationalized paranoider ?. States rights or not (tolerance or not), Slavery or not, these were some really small minded ignorant racist people that prolonged the wrongness of slavery and in turn made its legacy a huge chip on today's Americas shoulder (Euro-centric). Also check out: Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It.

The 1860's really isn't that long ago, but it might as well been in another solar system, What has been distilled for pragmatic purposes from civil war history ?, Reenactors ?. This book is "civil war LIGHT", not a serious historical look from a 1990's point of view. The chapters aren't cohesive and the point of the book is mute. Furthermore, considering the Author's other books extensive topics, Farb-errific. Questions I was left with were: What were the Civil war terms of surrender ?, How did the Civil war tie into the Jim Crow south ?, Was this a backlash against emancipation ?. States rights or not, Slavery or not, these were some really small minded ignorant racist people that prolonged the wrongness of slavery and in turn made its legacy a huge chip on today's Americas shoulder. Also check out: Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It.

Thanks alot Horwitz. You accomplished another distorted view of the south and it's people that bad TV shows and Jerry Springer have been pumping out for decades. The book starts off innocently enough and at first seems as if it will be a somewhat fair analysis. It quickly changes and become very elitist and condescending as other reviewers have mentioned. As someone born and raised in the south I will not deny there are some people on the fringe down here but they are nowhere near the norm as Horwitz would have you believe. Anyone from the north or other region of the country who has never spent anytime in the south can't help but think we are all racist and ignorant after reading this drivel. I wonder if Horwitz just made these charcters up from watching shows like "Heat of the Night". It's like caricatures and I have never ran across anyone in my 38 years like some of the people he describes in this book and mind you I grew up in rural eastern NC not in a homogenized city like Raleigh or Chapel Hill. So I find it hard to believe that someone knowing nothing about the region could just drive through the south on a whim and find these people. The final straw for me was his justification of the murder of the young white man killed by the young African-American for flying the confederate flag from his truck. After reading this I was finished with this book.

Considering the topic was primarily about people who were still obsessed with the Civil War (which on the surface seems a bit ridiculous to me), not a bad tale. Well told by the author who did quite a bit of research and traveling to examine the impact the Civil War had and still has, especially (or primarily) in the South. The perspective of rednecks, Civil War reenactors, African Americans, Southern Aristocrats, liberals, are all brought out objectively by the author.

This book is amazing! Horwitz is a wonderful story teller. One of the most interesting books about the contemporary South.

I found this to be a humorous and interesting read. Having grown upand lived around these types of people, I find the authors insight and observation entertaining and fun to read.

Read this book if you care about the South or race in America. Or if you like a good travel story or astoundingly great character sketches. Dozens of wonderful stories skillfully woven around his theme of the undying War Between the States and its lingering affects on whites and blacks in the South and in the USA. The author lets his points develop from the stories. He does not have a soapbox. The re-enactors and various keepers of the flame are so colorful that no one could invent them, not even Charles Dickens. The author does not skewer his subjects. He finds the humanity in all of them.

I first read it in the 90s when it came out. Just re-read it for maybe the fourth time after several years. Some of the events and politicians are a little passe, but it's still a more-than-5-star book.

I am not from the South and don't have family that cares about the War. That said, I expect that you could love this book as a black or white Southerner. The people are real, not caricatures. The book is tons of fun, and you will certainly laugh out loud, but it's not a make-fun-of-rednecks book.

This is a book I would never have read, except for the fact that I have a remarkable step son who likes to challenge my reading habits and try to make me a better person. With this book as a Christmas gift this year, I hope he has done both.

A son of the North, born in Maine and lived there most of my life, I always kind of looked at the Civil War as "we won", "they lost," Yea for our side.

As this book points out, if the battles had been fought largely in my nieghborhood, say Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, I might have has a different and more intense view of things.

Horowitz, points out in a very pleasant way, what this war meant and still means to those on the losing side and sometimes...why it does.

The book is divided bewtween his experiences with some very "hardcore" reinactor types, and his own travels through the "South" where he experiences the reactions of others to their view of (1) the War Between the States or (2) the American Civil War. Which description you use depends on where you live.

My step son who gave me this book, attended and graduated from Gettysburg College. His mother and I have many fond memories of getting acquainted with the Civil War battle ground there during the four years of his matriculation. The 20th Maine had a large role in that encounter, commanded by Joshua Chamberlin. Little Round Top is something I knew a bit about before traveling there. Having been there and read on that aspect of the battle, I know much more now.

However, I digress. This book is an interesting travel through the South of the Civil War with interesting encounters and discussions with those in the South who will not let his matter go and who give insight and understanding as to why.

You will encounter Robert Lee Hodge when you read this book. He is as hard core a reinactor as exists. He probably should be bronzed by those who believe as he does in the essence of the war and the need to preserve it as living history forever.

The American Civil War was a horrendous event in the numbers of people killed and wounded, the devestation brought to the South and it's long lasting effect on the American psyche, even when we don't realize it.

This book goes some distance in addressing that. It gets past the parades, the flag waving (both sides) and deals with a myriad of under currents which still affect this country. It is is powerfully and well written and worthy of being read by anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of who we are as a people and a country.

As other reviewers have stated, the author Horwitz, in Confederates in the Attic, does engage in some "rebel bashing." But I believe he does so only half heartedly, probably in order to appease his peers who would take him to task if he did not sufficiently bow to political correctness in his observations. It's not hard to read between the lines with his admiration of the accessible Shelby Foote and the experience with hardcore reenactors and Civil Wargasm that he so enthusiastically relates. Some of the people and attitudes documented by Horwitz are indeed grim and dark. Nevertheless, they all play a part in the great sociological tapestry of the South.

I found especially interesting and amusing the chapter on Atlanta and Gone with the Wind. Horwitz documents the unsoutherness of modern Atlanta and offers this quote from John Shelton Reed on page 283: "Every time I look at Atlanta, I see what a quarter million Confederate soldiers died to prevent." Interesting as well is the fondness of the Japanese for Gone With the Wind. On page 299 Horwitz notes the resonance between Japan and the South, both societies having been destroyed and then reconstructed by the United States.

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

If you've ever wondered why the South can't just get over the whole Civil War thing, this book explains--without being unduly sympathetic. It is also good for more than a few belly laughs--particularly if you are Southern, but even if you are not.

Horowitz is a Northern Jew by birth, whose immigrant European Jewish grandfather was fascinated by the Civil War--a fascination which he explains in a very logical and compelling way.

Similarly, he also explains the very real-life people whom he encounters on his tour of Southern Civil War battlefields in an equally logical and compelling way. I grew up in SC--he didn't--and I think he got it right, both the charming eccentricities and the definitely uncharming racist aspects and everything in between.

I love being a Southerner, even though there are some aspects about the South that I don't love. If you do, you will probably take offense at parts of Confederates in the Attic. If, like me, you love who you are with some meaningful reservations, or if you're interested in understanding more about the Southern thing as a whole, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Horwitz is an incredible writer, researcher, realist, and humanitarian. I have not been able to put this book down. Often, it is absolutely HILARIOUS, but at the same time, well, a horror story. I have lived all over the US, but my family hails from the South and that is where my heart has a home (not to mention my heritage is FULL of Confederate veterans). Horwitz hits the nail on the head with the Southern attitude of the War not really being over. What makes this book so special is you get a view of ALL sides. I loved it! Cheers, Tony Horwitz!

I have to agree with the other one star commentors. This book is nothing more than a collection of anecdotes about eccentrics and trivia, sprinkled with disapproving comments about the South by the author. It leads nowhere and you learn nothing. The author's lack of knowledge about the war shows also. This book had an interesting premise, but the author failed to follow through. At least now I know I can make a quick buck writing about all the eccentric kooks I met while living up North. Don't waste your money or your time y'all.

Anyone interested in the civil war and the south will truely love this book. It is a unique look at reinactors and to the details they achieve for the simple passion they had for the war and soldiers that fought in battle. The author is a great story teller with wit and heart.

In the beginning of his work, Tony lays down the question that the reader expects will guide the course of the book: why does the War remain so important and prominent in the consciousness of Americans, even, and especially, amongst persons who have no family connection? In consideration of the fact that the War primarily was fought south of the Mason-Dixon (Gettysburg and a few major exceptions aside), Tony plans an impressive survey of the Southern States. His journeys take him from North Carolina, which he amusingly relates as trapped between two prideful neighbors, to the Deep South states of Mississippi and Alabama, where Martin Luther King and the racial struggles are of recent memory. He does not visit all the Confederate states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are excluded) but he does manage forays into the border states of Kentucky and Maryland. A list of sites visited is impressive: Fort Sumter, Sharpsburg, Appomattox Court House, Chacellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Five Forks, Andersonville, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Shiloh, Manassas, the towns of the Shenadoah Valley. These are just a few that come to mind; there are many others.

Tony's approach for each state is consistent. He first goes to those cities or battlefields that are of known historical importance. Once there, he seeks historical societies or persons to whom he is referred. Two societies that continually appear in the work are the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and their female counterpart, the United Daughters of the Confederacy. He conducts informal interviews, and uses the information provided as a spring for further unplanned encounters in the environs. Inter-weaved with his solo treks are Tony's adventures with Rob Hodge, a "hardcore" re-enactor who crusades for the complete realization of Civil War realism, and who deplores modern intrusions.

I commend Tony Horwitz for attempting to dig beneath the surface, to make analogies and historical connections. He patiently listens to whom he calls neo-Confederates as they expatiate upon their views of the War, the meaning of flying the Confederate (Battle) Flag and how the official history of the war (written by the Northern invaders) distorts the truth behind the South's motives. He also shows that not all Southerners think alike on the War and on the flag issue. Some have little care for the heritage of the War, but have inherited and appropriated symbols of the Cause for their own cause: e.g. using the Confederate (Battle) Flag as a sign of rebellion against the status quo, or as a standard of white supremacy. Some Southerners go so far as to agree: The War is over. Let's get over it. The Southern blacks with whom Tony converses are preponderately opposed to the show of Confederate pride. Interestingly, at the end of the book, Tony relates of black schoolchildren who are just as cynical of Northern motives as they are those Southern. North or South, no difference, the leaders of both were white, i.e. racist against blacks. Even Abraham Lincoln does not escape criticism; the schoolchildren regard him as a "benevolent racist." (367)

Where Tony excels in his reporting, witticisms and the lucid, engaging tone that prevails throughout the work, there are several areas that significantly detract from the quality of an otherwise excellent piece of non-fiction. As the title of my review suggests, Tony understands the War as seen through the prism of the Civil Rights Movement. The two chapters that conclude the work, "I Had a Dream" and "Strike the Tent," in their contents serve as the interpretive crux of all the preceding chapters. In early chapters, Tony is cautious with his personal views, but finally he cannot hold them in any longer and lets loose (paralleling his explosive argument with Rose Sanders, a school teacher). He begins with a manifesto that, while in childhood the Civil War fancied his mind, it was the occurrences of the 1960's, in particular the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles that accompanied them, which developed his "political consciousness" (370). This is fine, except he conflates the racial issues of the 1960's with the issues of the War in the 1860's. Subsequent to this loose conflation, all manner of wild reflections are drawn. Race, segregation and discrimination, huge factors from the racial wars of the 1960's until today, become key issues in the War Between the States. Overcoming these issues would mean a unified country, where people believe and live alike, regardless of class, race or any other distinguishing characteristic. Great idealism, but were the historical motives of the War really of that ideal or to the extent that Tony imposes on it? Because what Tony sees in the South does not fully live up to his own ideal, he concludes wholesale rejection, rather than critical acceptance of what is good and rejection of that which is bad, as the best course of action. He facilely equates the traditional Southern view of the War as "propaganda," and he entertains the notion that the South would be better if it forgot its [War] history, since its history intrinsically relates to the racial strife and inequality of the 20th century. (376) "You Wear Your X, I'll Wear Mine" (in reference to Malcolm X and the design of the Confederate Flag respectively) is Tony's oft-repeated phrase of disgust, which also functions as his experience of the South as an entity: each side, Southern White and Southern Black, having its own history, but each of whose history is fueled by racial prejudices. Both must go.

In consequence on Tony's fixation on the issue of race, he cannot see the "States' Rights" argument as anything more than a concocted veneer to legitimatize darker motives: slavery and the assertion of racial superiority. Unfortunately, Tony does not even address the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which long before the Confederacy advocated states ' rights in the face of an oppressive federal government. Neither does he address the different views of the Founding Fathers regarding the union and whether it was an unbreakable union or one which the states made and from which they could secede under certain conditions.

In the end, Tony Horwitz's presentation of the South is amusing, if wanting at times, especially in the evaluative concluding chapters. After writing so well and humorously on re-enacting, it is disheartening and a sneer, even when taken as jest, for him to conclude of re-enactment activities as "childish things." (388) He makes mention of the "Irreconcibles," a group of Confederates and their descendants that remains to this day in Brazil; but Tony laments he could not visit them. This is a true tragedy. Had Tony visited, he may have gained some illumination as to the Confederacy and the motives behind the Confederacy, and its self-professed advocates of today. The Civil Rights Movement did not impact Brazil as it did the U.S., and the perspectives there would provide a unique complement.

As will be the case with all my reviews, I'm going to record my reaction to the book, not summarize it. If you want to know what the book is all about, read a few of the longer reviews (which, at the time of this writing, numbered about 250.) Or better yet, buy it; it'll only cost you $10.17. Plus shipping, of course - and sales tax, if you live in Washington State.
I approached this book with a full head of righteous indignation. I was ready to be pissed off. I expected a hatchet job. How could anything written about the South by a self-proclaimed liberal, ex-union organizer named Tony be anything other than another perfunctory slap - if maybe a comical slap - at all those redneck, racist , reactionary, drawling good ole boys down there at the bottom of the country - who, moreover, have the temerity to vote Republican? (Full disclosure: I am white, retired, live in Washington State, and voted for Reagan. Twice.) Boy was I wrong! (About the book - not about Reagan.) Maybe I'm too old or dumb to deal with subtle innuendo, but on a quick first reading this book was fun, informative in a non-threatening way - and fair. Sure, the author talked to some people I'm happy I've never met, but heck, there are plenty of those right here in the Pacific Northwest, and I run into them all the time. This book introduced me to some interesting, even fascinating, people - Rob Hodges (on the cover) was worth the price of admission all by himself. Some advice to the potential reader: if you're looking for sober, closely reasoned political or psychological enlightenment, buy some other book - this one, while serious in places, is mainly just good, honest fun. And some advice to the author: Tony - stay out of biker bars. We want you around to write more books.

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..
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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