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Title: Confederates in the Attic : Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by TONY HORWITZ ISBN: 0-679-75833-X Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 22 February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (202 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Wealth of Material
Comment: First a disclaimer: I am a travel book junkie and I like even bad travel writing. This is not bad writing. Horwitz is very talented and can take what are probably mundane interviews and turn a good tale.
Horwitz crisscrosses the South after getting bit by the Civil War bug. His first encounter is with a bunch of reenactors. Horwitz spends a damp night reenacting in the frosty hills of Virginia with "hardcores" (guys who presumably do not bathe while reenacting). This reenactment consisted largely of "spoon right" and "spoon left" and "Following suit, I snuggled my neighbor."
Showing some good sense Horwitz leaves the reenactors to go about their business without him and he takes up the trail of other obsessive-compulsives who day in day out re-live the Civil War. To his credit, Horwitz shows an amazing amount of empathy for these folks. He does not ridicule or belittle the people he interviews and therefore, I think he presents an unbiased portrayal of at least a portion of current southern culture and thought.
Don't get me wrong, I think these folks are way out there and probably should get beyond their defensiveness over the war. You can shout "States Rights" to the hills, but the war was about slavery. The North won and we should all agree that it was good thing that slavery ended. But as Horwitz shows, there are many, many people out there who will defend the Confederacy to their dying breath and lash out about northern atrocities.
The chapter on Andersonville is particularly poignant. Apparently, there is a small crowd of misfits who celebrate the "martyrdom" of the camp commander, Henry Wirz. Wirz was a war criminal. Thousands and thousands of prisoners of war died due to inhumane conditions at Wirz's camp. Yet there are some who feel compelled to celebrate his life and rationalize that, "the North did just as bad." Maybe so--but I don't know that anyone celebrates the north pow camps and makes saints out of their commanders.
Someone criticized Howitz for not having a thesis and he probably doesn't, but isn't it ok to just write an interesting book showing a little bit of Americana that lives on under the radar screens of popular culture.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Civil War "Rages" On...
Comment: The bloody battles of the civil war ended in April of 1865... but the Civil War still "rages on" in various forms all over the south to this very day. Find that hard to believe..? Well, you won't after you read this incredible book. The author takes us on a journey into the world of the Civil War aficionado.
From the description of the grease stained wool uniform he puts on so that he can sleep in an open field in freezing weather with other Civil War reinactors.. to the strange, but real life characters he encounters along the way as he travels throughout the many towns and battlefields of the South... this book kept me turning the pages and laughing out loud at one misadventure after another. The author goes in search of what little --might-- be left of the confederacy in the modern era and finds out it is alive and well in many interesting... disturbing, but mostly harmless forms. This is a instant classic for Civil War buffs and regular folk as well.
For Americans, no matter what side your ancestors were fighting on... read this book! You'll learn a few things and probably be surprised a few times as well.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great storyteller, compelling subject, wonderful book
Comment: Although I don't know more than the average person about the Civil War, I've always had a sneaking suspicion that it is still with us somehow. Tony Horwitz's "Confederates in the Attic" confirmed that suspicion and in a most amusing, touching, and balanced way.
A War reenactor friend recommended I read the book. We were talking about the modern-day states rights concerns and he said that the debate had its origins at Fort Sumter. So, I picked up the book thinking it would simply be a survey of what I now know is called neo-Confederate thought. But I was more than a little bit thrilled to find that it was not just a sociological study, but also a travelogue-probably my favorite kind of book.
After returning to the States from an extended time abroad, Horwitz's childhood interest in the Civil War-and especially Rebels-was rekindled after a band of hardcore reenactors showed up in his yard on their way to a battlefield. Soon he began to tour the South visiting relevant War sites and interviewing the Confederate descendants that kept that cause's heritage alive. Horwitz's has an amazing gift for storytelling and it shines through in this book. He has an uncanny ability to come across mundanely interesting characters in his travels and to write their stories with an original verve.
The book is also balanced. Although he is a Yankee, Horwitz's affinity for the Rebels is evident. But he checks that affinity with a good dose of history and reality. He conveys the notion that the South's resentment of the North is not wholly unjustified, but actually often well placed. At the same time, though, he illustrates the willful naivete that makes Gods of Confederate generals and that forgets the Old South's uglier sides. Horwitz manages to do all this while highlighting not just the tragic, but also the fun and curious stories of the Civil War and its remnants today.
Every American should strive to learn a bit more about the War, and this is a great place to start. It's a fun, touching read that demonstrates why that chapter in our history is still important-and indeed still with us-today.
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Title: Blue Latitudes : Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz ISBN: 0312422601 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Baghdad Without a Map: And Other Misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz ISBN: 0452267455 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: January, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: One for the Road : Revised Edition by Tony Horwitz ISBN: 0375706135 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Mothers of Invention : Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust ISBN: 0679781048 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory by David W. Blight ISBN: 0674008197 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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