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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
Overall, a pretty interesting book. I listened to it because since moving to Nashville have realized how much people talk about the Civil War. This book was written/researched 15-20 years ago but is still crazily relevant today. Parts were slow but I learned a lot.
I appreciated this book, especially in light of reading Hillbilly Elegy earlier this year. Horwitz's book presents a moment in time just as the religious right was transitioning into true power in Washington with the election of George W. Bush, before 9/11, before Obama, before Trump. His voice speaks about the past from the past, and I think time has confirmed and validated much of what is presented here about white resentment, increasingly entrenched racial and political divides, and what happens when we communicate in echo chambers.
On a more personal level, this book took me back to a time when my dream vacation would have been a tour of civil war battlefields. Like Horwitz, I grew up feeling the past surrounding me and heroes of old seeming very near. His re-engagement as an adult and as a journalist with these people and places was a rich experience for me.
On a more personal level, this book took me back to a time when my dream vacation would have been a tour of civil war battlefields. Like Horwitz, I grew up feeling the past surrounding me and heroes of old seeming very near. His re-engagement as an adult and as a journalist with these people and places was a rich experience for me.
got maybe 12 pages in and realized all of my red flags were going off regarding history books, such as but not limited to:
- a journalist writing about history
- a journalist writing about history and making comments about how other people don’t understand said history because they (the author) were obsessed over it as a kid so clearly they know tons (I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t tell an Edwardian naval historian that they don’t know the Titanic better than I do, genius)
- comments about how people were using the Civil War to make comments about race and class when ~clearly it’s about much more~
- a journalist writing about history
- a journalist writing about history and making comments about how other people don’t understand said history because they (the author) were obsessed over it as a kid so clearly they know tons (I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t tell an Edwardian naval historian that they don’t know the Titanic better than I do, genius)
- comments about how people were using the Civil War to make comments about race and class when ~clearly it’s about much more~
Dated. Useful glimpse into the world from which some of todays political sentiments have arisen. Helpful especially for non-Americans to understand this country’s culture. I wish there was a more recent edit of it to update some of the author’s inadvertently racist language.
I found this book intriguing, generally engaging, and ultimately disappointing. Horwitz does a great job of humanizing neo-confederates (though I wonder what this would have looked like now, 20+ years later), and he himself struggles enough with this, but along his journey he goes opening up cans of worms that I found fascinating but, I guess, just weren’t his project. But those were the books I wanted to read.
I started this book in the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville (recommended to me by my dad, who stumbled across the audio book and found it engaging on multiple levels). Having grown up in a "border state,"I found the narratives I heard about the Confederacy to be complicated and nearly always infused with an undercurrent of angry pride and somewhat obsessive opinions. It is hard to thoughtfully examine angry pride or obsessions, and yet, that's exactly what Tony Horowitz does. I really valued his determination to ride through the South without a lot of personal commentary (that's not to say there's no personal reflection) but just illuminating the way people in southern states viewed the world and their memory of the world. I ended up using a chapter ("Dying for Dixie") in one of my English classes as a way of examining how stories and realities can be shaped regardless of the facts or the truth of a situation.
America, collectively, has done a terrible job reconciling slavery and the Civil War, though I think efforts like Horowitz's are an important step in that direction. He compels us to just listen and then think. I am thankful for his efforts.
America, collectively, has done a terrible job reconciling slavery and the Civil War, though I think efforts like Horowitz's are an important step in that direction. He compels us to just listen and then think. I am thankful for his efforts.
I had to estimate the date that I read this book. I read it for an American history class in college. This is seriously one of my favorite ever books. I love the way that he blends history with travel writing by going and visiting the places that he writes about. I don't know a way to enter back into what the Civil War really meant and still means to America than this book.
I really enjoyed this book. Although a fair bit of it was rather frightening, particularly the divisiveness of race still prevalent in much of the southern US, there were small pieces of hope for the future of people learning to live with each other now and not living only in the past.
Really interesting subject told in a very nontraditional method. Loved it.
Really interesting subject told in a very nontraditional method. Loved it.
If I had reviewed this book immediately after having read it, I likely would have given it four stars. But after having unintentionally waited about six weeks to write this review, I've found myself having forgotten a lot of the substance of the book--and I think that this is due to the fact that this book is at its heart a travelogue. The chapters move from state to state. Don't get me wrong--Horwitz provides a lot of historical context (the chapter about Civil War POW camps was especially effective)--but I didn't feel like I got the information in a structured way that allowed me to absorb the information, apart from some very vivid insights into Civil War re-enactment (those chapters are incredible) and some of the unbelievable ways that the Civil War is remembered (and not remembered) in the South.
One thing I will admit, however, is that I somehow got out of taking American History, and I have a very fuzzy knowledge of the Civil War. (Apparently, according to Confederates in the Attic, I'm not alone in this knowledge gap.) However, I think my lack of knowledge of the specifics meant that I absorbed less content than I otherwise would have. Readers with a deeper knowledge of the war may get a lot more out of the book than I did. The core revelation of the book--the extent to which the War between the States, or the War of Northern Agression, is not really over in all parts of this country--is very interesting in and of itself, and makes for great reading. I think Horwitz was especially good when he discussed Civil War memory and contemporary race relations in the South--he didn't avoid the topic, but he didn't overstate his knowledge or scope of experience.
All in all, it's a very enjoyable book and easy to read. Recommended!
One thing I will admit, however, is that I somehow got out of taking American History, and I have a very fuzzy knowledge of the Civil War. (Apparently, according to Confederates in the Attic, I'm not alone in this knowledge gap.) However, I think my lack of knowledge of the specifics meant that I absorbed less content than I otherwise would have. Readers with a deeper knowledge of the war may get a lot more out of the book than I did. The core revelation of the book--the extent to which the War between the States, or the War of Northern Agression, is not really over in all parts of this country--is very interesting in and of itself, and makes for great reading. I think Horwitz was especially good when he discussed Civil War memory and contemporary race relations in the South--he didn't avoid the topic, but he didn't overstate his knowledge or scope of experience.
All in all, it's a very enjoyable book and easy to read. Recommended!
A little too much to-ing and fro-ing, this weird hick from here, that weird drifter from there, these obsessive Civil War geeks, that bunch of racists, the town where this happened, this quaint backroom museum, etc. It was enjoyable but I stopped before the end because, despite an interest in the Civil War, I didn't care. If you like boyish verve and masses of anecdotes, it's all yours.