Take a photo of a barcode or cover
242 reviews for:
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
Ty Seidule
4.4 AVERAGE
242 reviews for:
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
Ty Seidule
4.4 AVERAGE
An incredibly honest appraisal of the author's confronting the myth of the Lost Cause. A quick and engaging read, with extensive footnotes if you want to dive in to the topic further.
A telling deconstruction of someone who was raised in Southern “heritage.” Peeling back the layers of the onion can be painful but is necessary for progress. The ways even the US army has kept the southern “cause” alive blew my mind. The cult aspects of those who fight to preserve the stars & bars is baffling.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I came to this with high hopes but shelved it pretty let down after coming back to it after a long hiatus. What I thought would be an engaging, perhaps provocative, work was — in the end — a rather banal, tiresome, poorly written, yet extremely self-important personal account of coming to terms with one’s prior idolization of a Confederate icon. I couldn’t help feeling as if the author was trying to “southernersplain” or maybe “generalsplain”(to play on the term “mansplain”) something that we all already know … at least something that anyone, Southern or not, military or not, already knows if they’ve actually read this period of our history. Everything here is old news, but it’s presented as somehow groundbreaking. It isn’t. Moreover, it’s essentially so cobbled together from anecdotes and personal conclusions that I find it hard to categorize this as real historical scholarship. I sense that’s what the author wants this to be, but unfortunately, he’s ultimately unsuccessful.
This is a long review. The tl;dr review: This is an engaging reassessment of Robert E Lee that occasionally bogs down in unnecessary minutiae, but is otherwise quite interesting, even though I do not agree with all of the author's conclusions. It's worth reading if for no other reason than coming to an understanding how and why all those Confederate monuments got there in the first place, and why it is necessary to remove them. Okay, on to the long version:
"I have a convert's zeal. I know it. Sometimes my passion can verge on righteousness, but the facts don't care about feelings," writes Ty Seidule in this mostly engaging reassessment of Robert E. Lee. Mr. Seidule, who was by career a historian in the Army, writes a book which does not take a sort of scholarly step back in his assessment and he does not mean to. This is fine with me. I don't agree with all of Mr. Seidule's interpretation of the facts, but one cannot fault his desire to correct what he calls "the myth of the lost cause."
I have some acquaintance personally with the myth of the lost cause and it is quite interesting. If you only listened to the guys espousing this theory, you would think that slavery was nothing more than white plantation owners hanging out with their adoring and dedicated black slaves who would much rather be a slave making no money, than free in the big bad world (I am not making this up). All you have to do to correct this notion is read Frederick Douglas' biography.
[An interesting side note here: The author argues, correctly in my view, that the Southern interpretation of the Civil War won out from about 1865 to 1970 or 80. I thought everyone said that the victorious wrote history
"I have a convert's zeal. I know it. Sometimes my passion can verge on righteousness, but the facts don't care about feelings," writes Ty Seidule in this mostly engaging reassessment of Robert E. Lee. Mr. Seidule, who was by career a historian in the Army, writes a book which does not take a sort of scholarly step back in his assessment and he does not mean to. This is fine with me. I don't agree with all of Mr. Seidule's interpretation of the facts, but one cannot fault his desire to correct what he calls "the myth of the lost cause."
I have some acquaintance personally with the myth of the lost cause and it is quite interesting. If you only listened to the guys espousing this theory, you would think that slavery was nothing more than white plantation owners hanging out with their adoring and dedicated black slaves who would much rather be a slave making no money, than free in the big bad world (I am not making this up). All you have to do to correct this notion is read Frederick Douglas' biography.
[An interesting side note here: The author argues, correctly in my view, that the Southern interpretation of the Civil War won out from about 1865 to 1970 or 80. I thought everyone said that the victorious wrote history
What I found excellent about this book and different than others I've read about similar topics is that the author is a middle-aged white man, a 30-year army veteran, a military historian, the former head of the history department at West Point, a W&L grad, and was boy and young man who grew up in the South revering Robert E. Lee and the Lost Cause myth. Only through his own research did he come to realize how the myth was created and and why, and he's become an evangelist for correcting the record.
I think this perspective is important, because it shows that an incorrect view of Civil War history may not be the product of racist intent, and it can be changed. The way the author uses his own biography as an outline to educate the reader about history is creative and effective.
I give a 4 instead of 5 as the writing is good but not great, sometimes repetitive. A little more military history than interests me, but to be expected.
I think this perspective is important, because it shows that an incorrect view of Civil War history may not be the product of racist intent, and it can be changed. The way the author uses his own biography as an outline to educate the reader about history is creative and effective.
I give a 4 instead of 5 as the writing is good but not great, sometimes repetitive. A little more military history than interests me, but to be expected.
I read this book at the recommendation of a fellow historian. What a powerful read it is!! Seidule is retired US military and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point. His honesty is what makes this such a poignant read. Seidule describes in detail what he was taught as a child versus the major disconnects with historical truths that are sometimes painful to read.
However, this book gave me hope for the future for my country. If someone steeped in the myths of the Lost Cause and white supremacy can face hard truths and come out on the other side as a compassionate, informed citizen, then we all can.
However, this book gave me hope for the future for my country. If someone steeped in the myths of the Lost Cause and white supremacy can face hard truths and come out on the other side as a compassionate, informed citizen, then we all can.
Not the greatest work on the Lost Cause, but it is a powerful one in how it mixes the broad strokes of the history with the personal journey of Seidule. Definitely a book I would recommend for folks who need to have a similar reckoning to his own.