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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
A 25-year old book that feels timeless, sifting through the racial sins and resentments that for so long have shaped American politics.
While the contemporary reader may be frustrated by how the book sometimes winks at or skirts confrontation, its acknowledgement of issues like racism and neo-Confederate politics still gets short treatment in mainstream politics today. Horwitz shows the attraction and reulsion of the Lost Cause with subtlety and grace, if only occasionally righteous condemnation.
And all that is more than made up for with Horwitz's skill as a writer, gradually seducing the reader into examining their own assumptions through his wonderful characterizations, asides, and self-interrogation. The spice of continual Jewish asides adds levity and symbolic frisson as well.
This is a book for the uninitiated, lifting a romantic veil, and worlds above the contemporary Trump Country tourist books shit out by mainstream media outlets. This is a book that shows little changes, particularly our unwillingness, even in its pages, to fully confront race in America.
While the contemporary reader may be frustrated by how the book sometimes winks at or skirts confrontation, its acknowledgement of issues like racism and neo-Confederate politics still gets short treatment in mainstream politics today. Horwitz shows the attraction and reulsion of the Lost Cause with subtlety and grace, if only occasionally righteous condemnation.
And all that is more than made up for with Horwitz's skill as a writer, gradually seducing the reader into examining their own assumptions through his wonderful characterizations, asides, and self-interrogation. The spice of continual Jewish asides adds levity and symbolic frisson as well.
This is a book for the uninitiated, lifting a romantic veil, and worlds above the contemporary Trump Country tourist books shit out by mainstream media outlets. This is a book that shows little changes, particularly our unwillingness, even in its pages, to fully confront race in America.
I primarily read this book to appease a school assignment, however it did give an intriguing insight to how people connected with the Civil War and why perceptions on the issue are so varied depending on who you talk to. Although it was not my particular cup of tea it was easy to read and is filled with real people who seem to come alive off the page. Even if it's just in the moments where they propose that you pee on buttons for costume authenticity or huddle together for warmth on a cold night.
This book had been on my goodreads "to read" shelf for way too long: I wish I had read it sooner. Horwitz spent the better part of three years criss-crossing the South, stopping in at the small, forgotten places, trying to learn why it is that Southerners cannot let go of the Civil War. As a disclaimer, I should probably mention that I was born and reared in the South, and I have wondered much the same thing for most of my life. I attended an elementary school in Atlanta where I was taught to refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Aggression," because, as my teacher said, "There was nothing civil about that war." Growing up in Atlanta, I never saw a building over a hundred years old, except the Confederate Hospital in Buckhead, until I visited Savannah with my Girl Scout troop.
Horwitz finds that the Civil War means different things to different people. For re-enactors, the thrill comes from dressing up in as close to authentic clothes as possible, and re-living battles on Civil War battlefields. For some, like the oldest living Confederate widow, it is a matter of economics: a pension to stem the tide of poverty, or an economically depressed town like Selma, Alabama, where they are discovering there is money to be made both Civil Rights and Civil War tourism. Unafraid to look the specter of racism in the face, Horwitz wonders if there is any politically correct way to be a Rebel without being a racist.
I saw places I know and people that I have met in this book, which probably is one reason I read it at such a leisurely pace. I didn't want it to end. After all is said and done, Horwitz can't come up with an overarching reason why Southerners are so attached to this period of history. Part of it has to do with the attachment we feel to the land. The grandson of a President told me one time, "I'm like a plant. I just don't think I can grow without red clay beneath my feet." I understand that sentiment, just as I, too feel drawn to Civil War sentimentality. I resist it, though, because I know that the economic system of the South in the 1800's, while beneficial to the wealthy, left many people of many races in horrible, grinding poverty.
Nostalgia for the Old South brings with it a legacy of racism, poverty and neglect that all the hoop skirts and magnolia blossoms in the world can never erase. Horwitz got a good handle one this crazy, complex part of the country where I live. I just wish there were an easy way to reconcile the past with the society we live in today. I live in a university town with the highest rate of unemployment in the State of Georgia. While racism is mainly covert, it certainly has not gone away. The class structure here has changed somewhat, but it is still in place. So what do we do?
I think that Horwitz found a beautiful example of the answer in Montgomery, Alabama, where many historical markers delineate a Civil War event on one side, and a Civil Rights event on the other. Maybe an honest assessment of both of these struggles is the place where we start. For many people, the Civil War will never be finished, but it sure would be nice if we could reverse the polarities and just realize that the things that make Southerners Southerners -our love for where we live, our gracious hospitality, our deprecating sense of humor - are much more powerful bonds than the old Southern stereotypes of Johnny Reb swilling from a moonshine jug, and Mammy in the kitchen. Offensive? YOU BET! We have so much more to offer the world, as Horwitz eloquently demonstrates in this book.
Horwitz finds that the Civil War means different things to different people. For re-enactors, the thrill comes from dressing up in as close to authentic clothes as possible, and re-living battles on Civil War battlefields. For some, like the oldest living Confederate widow, it is a matter of economics: a pension to stem the tide of poverty, or an economically depressed town like Selma, Alabama, where they are discovering there is money to be made both Civil Rights and Civil War tourism. Unafraid to look the specter of racism in the face, Horwitz wonders if there is any politically correct way to be a Rebel without being a racist.
I saw places I know and people that I have met in this book, which probably is one reason I read it at such a leisurely pace. I didn't want it to end. After all is said and done, Horwitz can't come up with an overarching reason why Southerners are so attached to this period of history. Part of it has to do with the attachment we feel to the land. The grandson of a President told me one time, "I'm like a plant. I just don't think I can grow without red clay beneath my feet." I understand that sentiment, just as I, too feel drawn to Civil War sentimentality. I resist it, though, because I know that the economic system of the South in the 1800's, while beneficial to the wealthy, left many people of many races in horrible, grinding poverty.
Nostalgia for the Old South brings with it a legacy of racism, poverty and neglect that all the hoop skirts and magnolia blossoms in the world can never erase. Horwitz got a good handle one this crazy, complex part of the country where I live. I just wish there were an easy way to reconcile the past with the society we live in today. I live in a university town with the highest rate of unemployment in the State of Georgia. While racism is mainly covert, it certainly has not gone away. The class structure here has changed somewhat, but it is still in place. So what do we do?
I think that Horwitz found a beautiful example of the answer in Montgomery, Alabama, where many historical markers delineate a Civil War event on one side, and a Civil Rights event on the other. Maybe an honest assessment of both of these struggles is the place where we start. For many people, the Civil War will never be finished, but it sure would be nice if we could reverse the polarities and just realize that the things that make Southerners Southerners -our love for where we live, our gracious hospitality, our deprecating sense of humor - are much more powerful bonds than the old Southern stereotypes of Johnny Reb swilling from a moonshine jug, and Mammy in the kitchen. Offensive? YOU BET! We have so much more to offer the world, as Horwitz eloquently demonstrates in this book.
I enjoyed being able to peer into the hearts and minds of some personalities that were very foreign to me. Although I felt like the book dragged at times, the fascinating tidbits of history that I picked up along the way made up for that.
adventurous
dark
informative
medium-paced
In this one, Horowitz travels around the American South collecting modern experiences of the Civil War. It’s a light read on heavy topics–written in 1998 it almost seems a preview of what has been happening in national politics the last couple years.
It was fun. It took me two days. I’ll be keeping my copy.
F-ing fabulous. Tony Horwitz creates this brilliant narrative with great descriptions, personal analysis and combination of historical fact with people's perspectives.
Many years ago, my Grandmother and I toured the Lee-Fendall House in Alexandria, Virginia. I’ll never forget how she whispered to me “You know the South will never forget the War Between the States…it’s still going on for them.” She would certainly find agreement in Horowitz’s 1990’s tour of the South. The variety of Civil War interpretation, absorption and expression are reflected in his descriptions of the “dilettante” and Hard Core re-enactors, the pacifist confederate museum tour guide, the vegetarian tofu eating KKK member and the “new” states rights groups who want to preserve the Confederate flag. It reminds me of the quote from William Faulkner “ The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.” It would be good to remember that.
I really enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on residents of the south for whom the "war between the states" still has personal meaning. The trips through the battlefields were not as interesting to me. The author writes with humor and empathy (most of the time). There is much to learn about our current politics by reading this book!
http://unsweet-tea-no-lemon.blogspot.com/2014/03/confederates-in-attic.html
From hardcore Civil War re-enactors, to tourists who ask in the Atlanta Tourist Office where Scarlett and Rhett are buried, to neo-confederates promoting their civil right to display the rebel flag, to Klu Klux Klan recruiters, Horowitz sets off to investigate the living legacy of the Civil War (or the War between the States as some in the South prefer. I never understood the distinction till I read this book). Told in the same style as Blue Latitudes, he sets out in seemingly haphazard style mixing history and people’s take on it as he travels along; sometimes funny and generally enlightening.