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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
Read for book club. This was so well done, so honest. I really admire that he is willing to admit to the problems with how he was raised and educated, and reach for the truth, and then tell it fearlessly. One more stab in the Lost Cause body. I love how he came right out and said Robert E Lee was a traitor to his country, to the army, to West Point.
If you’ve read this book, congrats…you’ve read some critical race theory! I grew up here in the south, and I was never taught the truth. Yet everywhere you look, there are painful reminders that the south holds onto, with pride. Neighborhood names end with the word ‘plantation’. Homes are on the market and advertised with ‘plantation shutters’ features. Streets, schools, churches, military forts and more are named after Confederates. It just goes on and on.
Robert E. Lee was a terrible human being and he deserves no honor. The sight of so many of these flags still flying, monuments still standing is sad. It’s not about heritage and it never was. It never will be.
This was such a heart breaking book but it’s one everyone should read. We must dismantle white supremacy once and for all lest it destroy us.
Robert E. Lee was a terrible human being and he deserves no honor. The sight of so many of these flags still flying, monuments still standing is sad. It’s not about heritage and it never was. It never will be.
This was such a heart breaking book but it’s one everyone should read. We must dismantle white supremacy once and for all lest it destroy us.
Much has been discussed in the public sphere over the past 15 years during and after the sesquicentennial observation of the American Civil War about the continued endearment shown towards the losing side in that conflict. Several recent events within our nation continue to bring forth the idea that it no longer is politically acceptable to honor those who were traitors to the United States.
General (ret.) Ty Seidule presents compelling arguments toward that end. The authors small volume, part memoir / part history, is a quick read, but one in which a slower pace might tend to have more of an impact. I found myself re-reading many passages and going back to earlier pages as well as checking out the many noted references.
From his childhood through his teen and college years (he and I were born the same year, and graduated high-school and college the same years), Seidule had developed a respect and “hero worship” of General Robert. E. Lee. From his text, he lays out the history of the 19th century and the drive to both emancipate (from a northern stance) and to strengthen (from a southern…) the ‘peculiar institution’ which we know as chattel slavery from the enforced labor camps (popularly known as ‘plantations’).
Critiques of the Jim Crow law era, to segregation, to continuing voter suppression and details of ‘white supremacy’ rallies, displays for us that the Civil War and its long lasting effects are still with us. Statements by the author such as “Racism is not only morally wrong, but fiscally stupid” and “…economically stupid” drive home a point that has taken over 150 years for complete realization.
I concur with Ty… statues venerating traitors, army bases name after traitors, and holidays honoring the memory of traitors must end and be relegated to museum installations, not the public square.
General (ret.) Ty Seidule presents compelling arguments toward that end. The authors small volume, part memoir / part history, is a quick read, but one in which a slower pace might tend to have more of an impact. I found myself re-reading many passages and going back to earlier pages as well as checking out the many noted references.
From his childhood through his teen and college years (he and I were born the same year, and graduated high-school and college the same years), Seidule had developed a respect and “hero worship” of General Robert. E. Lee. From his text, he lays out the history of the 19th century and the drive to both emancipate (from a northern stance) and to strengthen (from a southern…) the ‘peculiar institution’ which we know as chattel slavery from the enforced labor camps (popularly known as ‘plantations’).
Critiques of the Jim Crow law era, to segregation, to continuing voter suppression and details of ‘white supremacy’ rallies, displays for us that the Civil War and its long lasting effects are still with us. Statements by the author such as “Racism is not only morally wrong, but fiscally stupid” and “…economically stupid” drive home a point that has taken over 150 years for complete realization.
I concur with Ty… statues venerating traitors, army bases name after traitors, and holidays honoring the memory of traitors must end and be relegated to museum installations, not the public square.
Great book! The author, a career military man and historian, grew up in The South, like me. And like me, was taught that Lee was a "great man". Also, like me, over the course of his life, he changed his mind about that. In this book, he explains the how, when and why of that change of heart. I don't think I was really his target audience, having heard most of these stories about Lee, and his "co-rebels" before. I think his mission is to try to explain to the "Lost Causers" and neo-Confederates why they are wrong about Lee. If you are a Southerner, or just a person interested in the legacy of the Civil War, you need this book.
One of the most important books on Civil War Memory, the Lost Cause, and the religion of Robert Edward Lee ever written. I will be recommending this book to everyone.
10 battle flags out of 10
10 battle flags out of 10
Excellent balance of personal story and historical facts. Robert Lee was a much worse person than you thought. We should all stop saying Union soldiers and just say US soldiers. Lee attacked the US and killed American soldiers.
p47 Compromise of 1790, first of 3 compromises spaced 30 years apart, that kept the U.S. one nation.
p56 "When I [author] talk about the Civil War or Confederate monuments, I hear complaints that I'm trying to change history. Is the new memorial in Alexandria changing history or correcting history? Yes to both. It's recovering a story lost and creating a more accurate portrayal of the past. History is always changing. We link the past to our conception of the present and we always have."
p96-7 Truman asked about creation of Civil Rights Commission, said inspired by the lynching in Monroe, Georgia, and the beating & blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard in South Carolina; both horrified him.
p139 Author's thoughts years later of his acceptance that at his commissioning ceremony in Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee there were more Confederate flags than U.S. flags.
p150 "During WWII, the army supported fighting in Italy, France, and all over the Pacific simultaneously. African American truckers accounted for nearly 75 percent of the famed Red Ball Express supplying...Patton's Third Army...against the German Wehrmacht in 1944 and 1945."
Author describes the naming of bases for Confederate officers, Chapter 5.
p152 Outgoing (Buchanan's administration) secretary of war, John B. Floyd sided with Confederacy. Grant later wrote that Floyd "distributed the cannon and small arms from the Northern arsenals throughout the South so as to be on hand when treason wanted them."
p159 references the successful coup d'etat and murder of African Americans in Wilmington, NC, in 1898, overturning the biracial 'Fusion' government. President McKinley did nothing.
p171fwd describes how Jubal Early was an early and prolific propagandist for the Lost Cause narrative.
p56 "When I [author] talk about the Civil War or Confederate monuments, I hear complaints that I'm trying to change history. Is the new memorial in Alexandria changing history or correcting history? Yes to both. It's recovering a story lost and creating a more accurate portrayal of the past. History is always changing. We link the past to our conception of the present and we always have."
p96-7 Truman asked about creation of Civil Rights Commission, said inspired by the lynching in Monroe, Georgia, and the beating & blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard in South Carolina; both horrified him.
p139 Author's thoughts years later of his acceptance that at his commissioning ceremony in Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee there were more Confederate flags than U.S. flags.
p150 "During WWII, the army supported fighting in Italy, France, and all over the Pacific simultaneously. African American truckers accounted for nearly 75 percent of the famed Red Ball Express supplying...Patton's Third Army...against the German Wehrmacht in 1944 and 1945."
Author describes the naming of bases for Confederate officers, Chapter 5.
p152 Outgoing (Buchanan's administration) secretary of war, John B. Floyd sided with Confederacy. Grant later wrote that Floyd "distributed the cannon and small arms from the Northern arsenals throughout the South so as to be on hand when treason wanted them."
p159 references the successful coup d'etat and murder of African Americans in Wilmington, NC, in 1898, overturning the biracial 'Fusion' government. President McKinley did nothing.
p171fwd describes how Jubal Early was an early and prolific propagandist for the Lost Cause narrative.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
This book may have turned me into one of those civil war obsessed dads, but in a good way. The author does an excellent job contextualizing the war while debunking so many myths using primary sources including secessionists and Lee's own words.
An honest telling of going from a racist Robert E Lee supporter to having his eyes opened to the truth about the Confederate South.