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239 reviews for:
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
Ty Seidule
4.4 AVERAGE
239 reviews for:
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
Ty Seidule
4.4 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Murder
This book was incredible. The way that it took a dive into how Ty Seidule was raized and the culture of the United States was increadable. It is a book I recommend for everyone.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
A superb reckoning with history, both personal and public, in the process charting and dissecting the downright lies of the “Lost Cause” narrative and its poisonous hold in American civic life.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I don't even know where to begin with this review, so I guess I'll start with myself.
I have never liked learning about history. It was always incredibly boring to me, and anything learned would go in one ear and out the other. I remember learning about the Civil War in school, but I barely remember what I learned. I knew it had to do with slavery and that the Confederate flag was bad, but that's about all I recalled or ever cared to recall. However, the events of the past year (2020: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building resulting with the Confederate flag being inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time in American history--technically early 2021) made me stop and re-evaluate not only myself and my own subconscious internalized racial biases that I had been raised to believe, but also to re-evaluate my lack of knowledge regarding the Civil War, racism, and how the Confederate flag ties the two together.
I absolutely loved all of the facts--which felt a little overwhelming to my history-free brain--that I learned in this book. I think my jaw was on the ground for 99.9% of it! I definitely don't remember learning even a fraction of these facts in any history class. I found myself diving into history in a way I have never done before. I just couldn't get enough! Google, highlighting, and note taking took up more time than I spent actually reading the book, but now I feel like I have *in my opinion* an accurate conclusion of the Civil War, or as I will now call it, The War of the Rebellion.
I thought that we (northerners) are all taught the same history. I had NO IDEA that the south would be taught anything different. The fact that the United Daughter's of the Confederacy controlled the education of children regarding the Civl War appalled and disgusted me. I did a lot of research into this group, and I'm left flabbergasted by that organization. I literally have no words regarding what I've learned about them, just shock and awe.
I was also appalled at the history regarding the naming of the U.S. Army bases, and how West Point eventually came to honor the Confederacy --- two more chapters where my jaw was on the ground.
After all that I've read in this book as well as seen throughout my own life, I fully agree with [the historian David Blight who wrote that the Civil War is like "the giant sleeping dragon of American history ever ready to rise up when we do not expect it and strike us with unbearable fire."] I have learned from this book that "history is dangerous. It forms our identity...and if someone challenges a sacred myth, the reaction can be ferocious." I saw that evidenced in this book, as well as the news as of late. My eyes are now fully open to the hateful, rhetoric dragon fire that the Lost Cause myth has been/is continuously spewing throughout the United States, and I cannot thank Ty Seidule enough for that.
I have never liked learning about history. It was always incredibly boring to me, and anything learned would go in one ear and out the other. I remember learning about the Civil War in school, but I barely remember what I learned. I knew it had to do with slavery and that the Confederate flag was bad, but that's about all I recalled or ever cared to recall. However, the events of the past year (2020: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building resulting with the Confederate flag being inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time in American history--technically early 2021) made me stop and re-evaluate not only myself and my own subconscious internalized racial biases that I had been raised to believe, but also to re-evaluate my lack of knowledge regarding the Civil War, racism, and how the Confederate flag ties the two together.
I absolutely loved all of the facts--which felt a little overwhelming to my history-free brain--that I learned in this book. I think my jaw was on the ground for 99.9% of it! I definitely don't remember learning even a fraction of these facts in any history class. I found myself diving into history in a way I have never done before. I just couldn't get enough! Google, highlighting, and note taking took up more time than I spent actually reading the book, but now I feel like I have *in my opinion* an accurate conclusion of the Civil War, or as I will now call it, The War of the Rebellion.
I thought that we (northerners) are all taught the same history. I had NO IDEA that the south would be taught anything different. The fact that the United Daughter's of the Confederacy controlled the education of children regarding the Civl War appalled and disgusted me. I did a lot of research into this group, and I'm left flabbergasted by that organization. I literally have no words regarding what I've learned about them, just shock and awe.
I was also appalled at the history regarding the naming of the U.S. Army bases, and how West Point eventually came to honor the Confederacy --- two more chapters where my jaw was on the ground.
After all that I've read in this book as well as seen throughout my own life, I fully agree with [the historian David Blight who wrote that the Civil War is like "the giant sleeping dragon of American history ever ready to rise up when we do not expect it and strike us with unbearable fire."] I have learned from this book that "history is dangerous. It forms our identity...and if someone challenges a sacred myth, the reaction can be ferocious." I saw that evidenced in this book, as well as the news as of late. My eyes are now fully open to the hateful, rhetoric dragon fire that the Lost Cause myth has been/is continuously spewing throughout the United States, and I cannot thank Ty Seidule enough for that.
Really I wanted to give this like 3.5 stars.
The first half of this book was extremely eye opening and hard hitting. The author does not mince words about white supremacy, the practice of enslaving people in the US, and the truth about the Civil War. It is clear that the author continues to have (icky) nationalistic sentiments and believes that the US military should "enforce" democracy. Hhhmm. Okay. I hope that the author will turn this same set of eyes to the other faults of the US military and history. I did appreciate the deep analysis of what put the Civil War in motion as his frank connections to how this white supremacy pervaded his own life. I learned a lot from this book. If you are white and from or living in the South, this is a good one to pick up. The second half did get a bit tedious (I can only read so much military history), but the exposure of the lies and insidious racism that have persisted for all the years since the Confederate's (forced) surrender are something I will be thinking about for a long time.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS:
*Elsewhere in the United States the "Civil War" is not referred to as "the war between the states" or "the war over states' rights." That's a Southern thing. Primary sources AND school curriculums in the north east call it "the War Against the Rebellion."
*The Union army was just the US army.
*Secession was a revolt against a democratic election (hmm I wonder why THAT sounds familiar) and was motivated by fear that slavery would be abolished.
*THE CIVIL WAR WAS VERY MUCH ABOUT SLAVERY. If anyone tries to tell you that it was about "states' rights" your response should be "yeah states' rights to literally own people."
*Southern culture revolves around nostalgia for chattel slavery and white supremacy. Gone With the Wind was used to help create and sustain myths about the "lost cause."
*Monuments, street names, buildings, etc honoring the Confederacy were often created as a direct response to integration and equality initiatives. They were and ARE an intimidation tactic meant to remind black people of the horrific past.
If any of my friends read this book: I would love to discuss it with you.
The first half of this book was extremely eye opening and hard hitting. The author does not mince words about white supremacy, the practice of enslaving people in the US, and the truth about the Civil War. It is clear that the author continues to have (icky) nationalistic sentiments and believes that the US military should "enforce" democracy. Hhhmm. Okay. I hope that the author will turn this same set of eyes to the other faults of the US military and history. I did appreciate the deep analysis of what put the Civil War in motion as his frank connections to how this white supremacy pervaded his own life. I learned a lot from this book. If you are white and from or living in the South, this is a good one to pick up. The second half did get a bit tedious (I can only read so much military history), but the exposure of the lies and insidious racism that have persisted for all the years since the Confederate's (forced) surrender are something I will be thinking about for a long time.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS:
*Elsewhere in the United States the "Civil War" is not referred to as "the war between the states" or "the war over states' rights." That's a Southern thing. Primary sources AND school curriculums in the north east call it "the War Against the Rebellion."
*The Union army was just the US army.
*Secession was a revolt against a democratic election (hmm I wonder why THAT sounds familiar) and was motivated by fear that slavery would be abolished.
*THE CIVIL WAR WAS VERY MUCH ABOUT SLAVERY. If anyone tries to tell you that it was about "states' rights" your response should be "yeah states' rights to literally own people."
*Southern culture revolves around nostalgia for chattel slavery and white supremacy. Gone With the Wind was used to help create and sustain myths about the "lost cause."
*Monuments, street names, buildings, etc honoring the Confederacy were often created as a direct response to integration and equality initiatives. They were and ARE an intimidation tactic meant to remind black people of the horrific past.
If any of my friends read this book: I would love to discuss it with you.
Told by a west point historian who grew up in Virginia and Georgia revering Lee, he takes a military historian’s eye to Lee’s legacy and confronts his own past as someone who held Lee up as a hero. Good perspective on how the civil war used to be taught, and shines a light on origins of confederate monuments, the myth of Lee, and southern military officials who chose to stay loyal to the union.