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

informative medium-paced

3.5

I listened to the audiobook of Robert E. Lee and Me in one-day on a road trip. I'd say it was largely worth the read, but Seidule is a little repetitive and admits several times that he has the "zeal of a convert." This can come across as self-righteous at times, even when I agree with the thing he's being zealous about. But most of his historical research is compelling -- the timing of Confederate memorials, the prevalence of anti-Black violence, the sometimes deliberate, sometimes duped romanticized narratives of the noble South and its "gentlemen" that he grew up with, the army politics of trying to create "unity" by, in the 20s-40s implementing segregation and naming forts after Confederates who weren't even good leaders by any standard and who in some cases never even served the US, the cult of Lee that largely won the historical narrative throughout the 20th century -- but had no dominance in the 19th century except among white Southerners themselves, who doggedly pushed a specific narrative. Even as a staunch Northerner, I found some of this narrative-critique relevant: as a kid, I read and absorbed a grade-school history curriculum written by conservative Southerners who certainly did not praise slavery but had decidedly fond opinions of Lee and dismissive opinions of Reconstruction. I think Seidule, a professional historian, backed up his descriptions of historical facts well. My chief complaint is that he risks making his history less compelling by rabbit-trailing a few times into his current political opinions (in his view, the Democrats are the party of justice and good governance, which...I get it, the GOP has not had a good look for quite some time, but I don't find making this about parties compelling, much less some implicit comparisons of contemporary cultural controversies with the farworse, far less morally ambiguous slavery issue). On a 1-5 scale, I give his writing a 3, his history a 4.5, and his extra-historical musings a 2.5.