A review by travellingcari
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz

5.0

This was a re-read, although it has been thirteen years so I don't remember much. What still sticks with me is Horwitz's comment that North, East and West are directions, but South is a place. So so true. I'd planned to read this over a visit to the Civil War sites in Mississippi and Alabama, but time got away from me. I was pleased to see it for sale in Shiloh NPS' bookstore and took that as somewhat of an endorsement.

This book was researched in the mid 1990s and published later that decade. It's interesting to see how e-mail and broader internet has changed some of the elements, including the meetups of reenactors (Farbs or not) and Sons/Daughters of the Confederacy. What I found fascinating was the discussion of Richmond's Monument Ave. and the proposed statue of Arthur Ashe. The Confederate statues are a current issue but I was not aware of the controversies back then. In this way and others, the book is timeless.

I like how Horwitz layed out the book - meeting Robert Lee Hodge and then continuing to meet up with him throughout his research.

A good read, both as a battlefield primer but also as a sociological look at history and the message of the Civil War.