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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
An entertaining travelogue through the sites of the Civil War. Horowitz's writing combines humor (sometimes irreverent) and history in a very appealing way. He takes a look at reenactors, the KKK, Andersonville, Antietam and Gettysburg. I loved the way the author combined the past with its effect on today's culture.
I don't know what I expected of this book, but being a civil war buff, I had to read it, just because of the title and the hilarious picture on the cover. (he's a reenactor) It turns out, this little gem is an excellent treatise on racial tension in America, more relevant today than when it was written ten years ago. For those who think we've come a long way in the race relations dept since the Civil War and Civil rights marches, hate to burst the bubble. If anything, its worse. What I took away from this is...human beings are the Same, regardless of the color of their skin, and if we, as a country can't come to grips with that soon, we will fall. It is time to grow up!
Loved this, especially the entire WAR GASM! chapter, which was laugh out loud funny, poignant, and frustrating all at once.
Twenty years on, I'm not sure how different this book would be today.
Twenty years on, I'm not sure how different this book would be today.
3.5 - I really liked this book and found that it offered interesting insight into a topic I know very little about. However, sometimes it becomes obvious that this book is now over 20 years old - mostly in terms of the author’s phrasing of certain things (e.g. “a group of blacks on one side of a classroom and a group of white students on the other” - why couldn’t it have been phrased as a group of black students and a group of white students?). It is interesting reading an older book on this topic, since the debate around the removal of Confederate memorials was starting while Horwitz was writing this book, and is still continuing today.
"Confederates in the Attic" is a slow, deliberate book that takes its time as the author meanders through a great many disparate aspects of the American Civil War's long afterlife. what buoys and drives it is the variety of interesting and strange people and situations Horwitz encounters rather than the style of his writing as he does it. I've seen some comments that criticize this book for making a poor argument or leaving key elements of its argument out, but I don't think it's that kind of book.
Rather, it's one man's experiences looking into the things that interest him about the modern popular fascination with and the legacy of a war more than a hundred years old. In the course of this, Horwitz does a nice job of drawing out subjects to reveal more than one facet of their resonances. In short, i think it intends more to raise questions and inspire though about the issues that surround the ways the Confederacy seems to live on through anecdotal experience than to provide final and thoroughly-argued answers.
The most interesting parts of the book, perhaps not surprisingly, follow people: namely the briefer chapter on the last Confederate widow, and the longer ones on Robert Lee Hodge and his fellow hardcore reenactors. These are fascinating character study of some very curious characters; Horwitz strongest point isn't necessarily making his travel narrative riveting, so perhaps this book would have been better if it had zeroed more narrowly on this reenactor subculture, which he shows he can evoke vividly.
Over the course of "Confederate in the Attic" I learned a lot of interesting things, delved into a fascinating group of unusual people, and was provoked to though by a number of revelations about complex issues. Something about Horwitz's style, though, leas the book to remain a bit uneven, maybe dwelling too long on the wrong places in the narrative.
Rather, it's one man's experiences looking into the things that interest him about the modern popular fascination with and the legacy of a war more than a hundred years old. In the course of this, Horwitz does a nice job of drawing out subjects to reveal more than one facet of their resonances. In short, i think it intends more to raise questions and inspire though about the issues that surround the ways the Confederacy seems to live on through anecdotal experience than to provide final and thoroughly-argued answers.
The most interesting parts of the book, perhaps not surprisingly, follow people: namely the briefer chapter on the last Confederate widow, and the longer ones on Robert Lee Hodge and his fellow hardcore reenactors. These are fascinating character study of some very curious characters; Horwitz strongest point isn't necessarily making his travel narrative riveting, so perhaps this book would have been better if it had zeroed more narrowly on this reenactor subculture, which he shows he can evoke vividly.
Over the course of "Confederate in the Attic" I learned a lot of interesting things, delved into a fascinating group of unusual people, and was provoked to though by a number of revelations about complex issues. Something about Horwitz's style, though, leas the book to remain a bit uneven, maybe dwelling too long on the wrong places in the narrative.
This was a very interesting companion on my recent trip to North and South Carolina, my first time exploring a part of the American South. I always enjoy reading a travel account while traveling myself, as it provides a backdrop to my own experiences. As I followed Tony Horwitz's journeys around the South in 1998 searching for the remains of the Civil War in contemporary Southern culture, I compared and contrasted his experiences with my own as I visited historical museums and sites such as Fort Sumter. Ten years later, I saw similarities but also differences from the events of the book.
As for the contents of the work, Horwitz, I felt wrote a very sympathetic account of the people he encountered on his journey and their viewpoints on the history of the Confederacy and the Civil War, no matter how strange they might be. Equal parts humorous (Hodge and the reenactors) and depressing (the racial issues that continue to haunt America), I felt that he captured the conflicting and contradictory attitudes towards the meanings of the war and its importance today. On the other hand, he reaches no real conclusions and the book may be seen as a collection of articles on various people and events in the Southern U.S. and its history. But, such is life sometimes, answers are not always obvious in such a complex and divisive topic as this, and I was given much to think on as I read and traveled.
As for the contents of the work, Horwitz, I felt wrote a very sympathetic account of the people he encountered on his journey and their viewpoints on the history of the Confederacy and the Civil War, no matter how strange they might be. Equal parts humorous (Hodge and the reenactors) and depressing (the racial issues that continue to haunt America), I felt that he captured the conflicting and contradictory attitudes towards the meanings of the war and its importance today. On the other hand, he reaches no real conclusions and the book may be seen as a collection of articles on various people and events in the Southern U.S. and its history. But, such is life sometimes, answers are not always obvious in such a complex and divisive topic as this, and I was given much to think on as I read and traveled.
Truly fascinating book about the fascination/obsession that still remains in the South for the Civil War. The writing was outstanding, humorous and very engaging. Glad I read this.
I read this book at the same time as [b:Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption|20342617|Just Mercy A Story of Justice and Redemption|Bryan Stevenson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1420795201s/20342617.jpg|28323940] by [a:Bryan Stevenson|4396806|Bryan Stevenson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1416790038p2/4396806.jpg].
This book was difficult to read in spots because of the racist opinions that some of the interviewees shared. Outside of that, it was an interesting look at contemporary southern attitudes toward the Civil War.
This book was difficult to read in spots because of the racist opinions that some of the interviewees shared. Outside of that, it was an interesting look at contemporary southern attitudes toward the Civil War.
I listened to this book back when I was moving to Philadelphia, so 1999. It was a great way to pass the 6 hrs back and forth from Boston. And I still use FARB in my everyday thoughts.