A review by bookishquilter
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule

5.0

A book written by a man willing to say “Mea Culpa” about his previous support of a white supremacist folk hero. It was refreshing to read a book by a career Army officer and academic that describes their journey to a different opinion from their early days. I wasn’t even raised in the South but was still indoctrinated into believing elements of the Lost Cause myth.
In my freshman year of college a friend took me home to Georgia for a weekend. She proudly showed me her family’s literal shrine to Lee in their living room. While I still believed in the “state’s rights” myth about the War of the Rebellion I was very uncomfortable with the canonizing of Lee into some kind of southern religion. I now understand why.

Seidule’s book sheds light on an issue that shouldn’t still be causing problems but yet it is. That issue is the south’s obsession with the Lost Cause. I will be having my teen read this book along with her American History textbooks next school year.

If you see this, Dr. Seidule, thank you for your book.