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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
I shelved this book for years when I worked at Borders and was not tempted to read it. I thought I had an idea of what it was about--crazy Southern rednecks who like to pretend the Civil War is still a thing. I chose it for my book group since it was the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
The book is fascinating on many levels. Tony Horwitz lets his curiosity lead him across the South in search of the meaning and ramifications of the Civil War (a name not entirely accepted there, but used for simplicity's sake by me). He meets war re-enactors, hard-core and farbs (you have to read the book to find out what a farb is), curators of odd and tiny museums, a Scarlett O'Hara entrepreneur, historian Shelby Foote, and battlefield enthusiasts. He finds that the War still resonates with many who have deep roots in the South, but for some, especially the young, it has lost all meaning.
There is much pleasure to be had by going along with Tony Horwitz on his odd journey, but some serious soul-searching about history, race, and the future of the South will be called for.
Recommended for all interested in U.S. history.
The book is fascinating on many levels. Tony Horwitz lets his curiosity lead him across the South in search of the meaning and ramifications of the Civil War (a name not entirely accepted there, but used for simplicity's sake by me). He meets war re-enactors, hard-core and farbs (you have to read the book to find out what a farb is), curators of odd and tiny museums, a Scarlett O'Hara entrepreneur, historian Shelby Foote, and battlefield enthusiasts. He finds that the War still resonates with many who have deep roots in the South, but for some, especially the young, it has lost all meaning.
There is much pleasure to be had by going along with Tony Horwitz on his odd journey, but some serious soul-searching about history, race, and the future of the South will be called for.
Recommended for all interested in U.S. history.
As a scholar and (lifelong) student of American history and material culture, largely focused on the South, glad I finally read this...particularly interesting to see what has changed (and what has not) in the 22 years since its initial publication, and what still remains relevant to our times.
I learned a ton, was very impressed by the depth of his research, and enjoyed the sprinkling of humor.
Excellent words:
Fulsome — excessively flattering or insincerely earnest / copious or abundant
Redoubt — a small, often temporary defense fortification
Abrogate — to abolish, do away with, or annul
Ersatz — bring an unusually inferior imitation or substitute / fake or artificial
Hoary — gray or white as if with age / hackneyed / no longer funny or meaningful due to repetition / so old as to inspire veneration
Peripatetic — one who walks about from place to place
Excellent words:
Fulsome — excessively flattering or insincerely earnest / copious or abundant
Redoubt — a small, often temporary defense fortification
Abrogate — to abolish, do away with, or annul
Ersatz — bring an unusually inferior imitation or substitute / fake or artificial
Hoary — gray or white as if with age / hackneyed / no longer funny or meaningful due to repetition / so old as to inspire veneration
Peripatetic — one who walks about from place to place
This is the first book that I've read that has shed light on the discrimination against Southerners. It's as engaging as it is eye opening. In discussing the book with some friends from North and South Carolina, I stumbled across painfull adaptations and aculturation that have shadowed their lives among the "Yankees."
3.5 stars. Horwitz was a really engaging writer and this is a great travelogue, but his failure to treat seriously with race and the Civil War makes this book really lacking. I don't know if it's because historical memory of the Civil War was so different in the 90s or what, but the fact that Horwitz only glancingly engages with race is glaring to any 2022 reader. Even when he meets with neo-Confederates and people who openly tell him they are racist, he has little to say about the subject and never really unpacks it, even when handed giftwrapped opportunities.
I'd be interested in a thematic response from today that undergoes the same project Horwitz did but with the much more loaded context of today, where acknowledging race and history is forbidden in schools due to panics about "CRT," where the nation is in the middle of a reckoning over policing and its origins in slave patrols, and where a third of the country is dedicated to revanchist racism, even at their own expense. And especially now, when the fight for individual and bodily autonomy is raging once more.
I'd be interested in a thematic response from today that undergoes the same project Horwitz did but with the much more loaded context of today, where acknowledging race and history is forbidden in schools due to panics about "CRT," where the nation is in the middle of a reckoning over policing and its origins in slave patrols, and where a third of the country is dedicated to revanchist racism, even at their own expense. And especially now, when the fight for individual and bodily autonomy is raging once more.
dark
funny
informative
reflective
A couple of thoughts on this book. As someone who grew up in the North and has lived in the South for the past 25 years, I feel I can certainly relate to its Yankee author and his quest to relive Southern Civil War history in more modern times. And I really appreciate Horwitz' impartiality as we see both respect for the South and North sprinkled throughout his narrative. Horwitz is both entertaining and insightful and we readers, especially those living in the South, learn much about our history and ourselves when reading his prose. But I do sort of wonder how true Northerners feel about the book (bored?) and I also feel the book begs for an update 15 years later. I personally believe a lot has happened to the South in the last 15 years and do sort of question whether many of the folks Horwitz encountered in the mid 1990s feel the same way today that they did back then. But a very enjoyable book.
This book elicited a lot of different emotions; it was hilarious, infuriating, poignant, maddening, morbid, gross, fascinating, informative, and just plain sad. Of course it helps to be a bit of a Civil War freak, which I became at age twelve after reading Gone with the Wind (which gets a chapter...scary to learn that many people come to Atlanta to visit the graves of Scarlett and Rhett !)
(one caveat...the chapter "Dying for Dixie" is about a present day murder trial, and was sort of a sore thumb, I thought. I found it rather unpleasant and it threatened to bog me down, glad I finally just let myself skip the rest of it)
(one caveat...the chapter "Dying for Dixie" is about a present day murder trial, and was sort of a sore thumb, I thought. I found it rather unpleasant and it threatened to bog me down, glad I finally just let myself skip the rest of it)
I found this book fascinating and extremely thought provoking. Horwitz spent a year or so in the mid-1990's traveling through a number of southern states from Virginia to Mississippi and talking to countless people about their feelings on the Civil War, race relations, and more. When I first began reading this, I had some reservations about how relevant the material was, due to the fact that it was published over twenty years ago. However, due to recent events, it seems quite possible that little has changed over the last 20+ years. Horwitz talks to a great variety of people and treats them and their opinions respectfully. His writing style is never dull historical material but rather attempts to deduce why after so long the fascination with the War Between the States is still so high. Engaging reading and still quite relevant, as it touches heavily on race relations, antigovernment sentiment, and feelings over the Confederate flag. I will be thinking about this for a long time.