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Summary: A literary "Betty Ford Clinic for the Recovering Reenactor"
Review: Tony Horwitz' "Confederates in the Attic" isn't the type of book I thought I would bother reading. Having once been a Civil War reenactor myself (Yankee) I quit the "hobby" almost a decade ago after having had just about enough of the egos, the political infighting, and the "farbs." I wanted nothing more to do with the Civil War because it became such an addiction for me that my personal and professional life suffered. Unfortunately, there is no Betty Ford Clinic for the Recovering Reenactor and I had to undergo years of cold-turkey withdrawl from my Civil War addiction. If Horwitz' book had been available to me then, I would have come to terms with my history obsession much easier. Although I didn't care for the tiresome and ultra-politically correct "hate thy white self" undertone of the book, I found it mostly a humoress read that brought back a lot of memories from my time in the "war." Reading it has allowed me finally make peace with my obsessional past and I highly recommend anyone interested in becoming a reenactor to delve into this book first before taking the plunge. No, it won't turn you off on the Civil War or reenacting, but it will help you keep it all in a healthy perspective and hopefully prevent it from sucking your soul away.
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Summary: NZer enjoys US historical construction shock!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Horwitz's book. It is good humoured, gracious, and honest with regard to the possibilities of history and historical nuance. I am a fourth-generation New Zealander who is currently fascinated by the on-going construction and reconstruction of NZ history. We are only now coming to terms with the possibility that our own colonial war/s through the middle of the 1800's might also be considered 'civil' - in the sense that two distinct groups of New Zealanders went to war with each other. The implications of this relatively self-evident idea are far reaching for us as a post-colonial nation. So ... It was fascinating to see that perceptions of history and historical fact in the 90s manifest themselves in fairly similar fashions, regardless of the locale of the 'good ole boys' or the 'militant oppressed'. It was interesting to note that Horwitz identifies a new generation of citizens 'both thin-skinned, and perversely insensitive'. They are familiar, and I work daily to try to become less of one. Most importantly, it was encouraging to read Horwitz's attempt to work through their ideas and those of many others, and form his own conclusions.Yeah, I liked it. I hope you do too.
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Summary: Required reading for neo-Confederates
Review: Required reading for neo-Confederates and those who want to understand them. The material on the "hard-core" Civil War reenactor fringe is at once both fascinating and pathetic. Provides timely insight into the resurgence of the "Lost Cause" movement in the American South. As a bonus, Horwitz provides an interesting perspective and critique of the ethno-centric education fad. Great "beach book!"
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Summary: intriguing and quirky
Review: This book is an extremely interesting way to re-learn your American History. The author takes you through all the important sites of the Civil War (War Between the States if you will) and simultaneously teaches you the facts of the specific battles and illustrates how those battles affect people to this day. The book is an interesting romp through the South where we meet dozens of interesting people that I was pretty sure did not exist anymore. From Civil War die hards to Scarlet O'Hara wannabes, this book is funny and scary and worth the read.
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Summary: worth the effort of separating the wheat from the chaff
Review: Confederates in the Attic is a good read, but the subtitle, Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, needs to be understood. This is not an exhaustive study of an issue, but snapshots taken on a journey around the edges; and, it is important to keep in mind, that the one taking the pictures chooses the subjects. In this case, it is the fringe subjects he has chosen. If you do keep that in mind, you can enjoy each snapshot without trying to make it fit into a bigger picture. This is not easy to do since it seems Horwitz himself forgets the dispatch philosophy and tries to bring a continuity to the work by tying it together under the theme of simmering southern racism and the dissenting opinions over the meaning of the Rebel batttle flag. Horwitz is at his best when he simply tells the story and lets it speak for itself. When he tries to extrapolate some greater theme, he gets into trouble. In a work this size, he can not exhaust a subject to present needed objectivity. He reminds me of the blind man grabbing the tail of an elephant and declaring the elephant is like a rope. Read this book like you're looking at the tail of the elephant and enjoy it for what it is--good stories, well told. But don't for a minute think you're viewing the whole elephant.
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Summary: An adventure into the South and the Civil War
Review: This book began with two missions. I wanted to take an adventure across the old Confederacy--to wander the back roads of Dixie rather the way that Ross McElwee did in his movie "Sherman's March." But I also wanted to probe why, in an amnesiac nation, so many Americans cling to a long-ago war and still fight over its symbols, meaning and memory. As one critic put it (more succinctly than I ever managed to), the book approaches the Civil War "as a still-breaking news story" and explores the Confederacy "not as it was, but as it is today." The result, I hope, is a story that can't be easily categorized. There's plenty of history here, from Shelby Foote to Shiloh to Selma, but the book's also aimed at general readers who may not share my keen interest in Southern and Civil War history. I tour popular spots such as Charleston, Gettysburg and the Blue Ridge Mountains, but often meander to farflung places and meet weird, wise characters. Much of the book is comic, particularly my bumbling attempts to become a reenactor, but there's also tragedy, such as the racial murder mystery I unravel in Kentucky. I hope readers will learn something, laugh a lot, and brood some, too. I'd also like to thank readers who have taken the time to post comments, pro and con. Book-writing can be hard lonely work and on dark days you wonder if anyone cares. Reading this page redeems a lot of that doubt and sweat and makes me want to write another.
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Summary: Very entertaining . . .
Review: Extremely well-written -- you become part of the story as Horwitz and his re-enactor subjects bed down in the cold night air. He takes you to the south that you won't find on the Interstate and puts into perspective those so fascinated with the Civil War they spend their weekends, and in some cases their lives, trying to live it.
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Summary: Finally, someone explores the Civil War buff phenomenon!
Review: This book is fascinating. Horwitz creates a perfect mix of interesting characters, historical facts and little-explored locations. Probably be hard to convince a non-civil war buff to read it, but it really is 50% travel book. (ie "Blue Highways" or "Travels with Charley).
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Summary: Controversial subject ably handled
Review: There's no way Tony Horwitz or any author could wrestle with a topic as inherently controversial as the Civil War's legacy without provoking such polarized opinions as you see among these readers/reviewers. It goes with the turf. Contrary to some other reviewers' opinions, I found the book gracious, compassionate, and completely enthralling. I especially appreciate the last few chapters where Horwitz discusses one of the most troubling aspects of US society today - our ongoing racial tensions - intelligently and objectively.
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Summary: Mean-spirited,petty,vindictive.Did I mention boring wannabe?
Review: This disappointing,superficial puffpiece began as a short print article in the WSJ on a tiny group of college-age Civil War buff reenactors hurling themselves into passionately eccentric research on the minutiae of the 1860s(jeans weaving, button soldering, shoe stitching, pipes and pocketwatches)in their last undergrad days before taking up the yuppie yoke at some Big Eight accountancy. Horwitz tries and fails in turn at the voices of both Dave Barry and Bill Bryson;after which the book takes a dark, mean-spirited dive from which Horwitz never surfaces again. I met Horwitz while he was researching this effort; he was a pleasant enough tablemate, though my old-fashioned code of ethics precludes drinking with hobbyists young enough, private enough and innocent enough to embrace you as their 'friend', then making them look foolish in next week's morning edition. Horwitz's hackneyed premise of superior, condescending urbanite alarm is a weary steal from the London tabloids of the early 80s, when twentysomething reporters were daily despatched from London by their editors to the wilderness hinterlands,from which to report with smug bemusement on the laughable daily struggles for survival of the hardscrabble working class of smalltown coal miners, North Sea fishermen and rural ambulance drivers, homecare nurses and other non-U sub-humans. In Britain this spiteful, antisocial genre died almost overnight from mass backlash ;that Mr. Horwitz can cynically cash in on the same formula here in the U.S. in 1998 says worlds about his agent's, his editor's, or his own all too accurate low estimate of the American semiliterati. Horwitz has unwittingly written three books in this one thin volume, none of them well: one a simpleminded padding of a short newspaper piece on undergrad history buffs' weekends into several, hm, undemanding chapters; the second a series of shabby, elementary-school betrayals of confidence of same in which Horwitz lets his newfound college-age prey befriend him, shelter him, drink with ! him, then holds their latenight pizza-joint confidences to national ridicule in print; and lastly, and here's what takes Horwitz from the merely puerile to the really repulsive, Horwitz pretends to be not some mere humorless humorist, but an intrepid investigative undercover reporter (as Jon Lovitz on SNL would say, "Yeah, that's it") revealing somehow a Deeper Conspiracy, a simmering Rebellion, grab your gasmasks and find a fallout shelter,Mama--Tony says they's a Klansman in every bush, a Militia killer in every English major handsewing his cadet grey uniform buttonholes, a James Earl Ray in every smalltown community college amer.history prof prepping for next semester's Gettysburg project. Says they's a Dark Side to the South, and somethin's Gotta Be Done before Millions Die Anew in Fratricidal Nuclear Musket Holocausts Because We Haven't Learnt the Lessons of the Wo-ah. The last is a clumsy career move unworthy of a WSJ reporter. Maybe it's a misprint. Repeated endlessly. And he just didn't catch it. In all those galley proofs(Jon Lovitz:" Yeah, that's it. And my wife, Morgan Fairchild--yeeaahhh") What's more amazing still is, as the turn of the century pedlar in the Bowery said after the stray draft-horse crapped in his open wooden barrel of milk-by-the-quart, "What the hell cares what happent. It still SELLS!"
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