Rating: 
Summary: Beneath Scarlett's Skirt
Review: Confederates In The Attic is an enjoyable charge through history and society. The author mixes humor, irony and some serious social observations about a New South who is still debating the Lost Cause. The book tended to stall in North Carolina and at Shiloh. There are some Gone With The Wind gems and a facinating piece about a living Confederate widow. The themes of why the South still dwells on the war are redundant. That is balanced by the author's playful and humorous observations on smaller aspects. You'll enjoy the battle.
Rating: 
Summary: Confederate Propaganda
Review: CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC serves as a soapbox for the author to share his racist views. The states that rebelled from the United States during the civil war are glorified for the views their Confederates held about life. Page after page of the book treats the injustices humans have inflicted on humans as nothing and adheres to a belief that fighting for a lost cause and treating one's fellow human unfairly is fashionable and appropriate. Treating one's fellow human beings unfairly may be fashionable in some places, but it is never appropriate.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: I just cannot say enough about this book. Horwitz's travels and stories kept me enthralled the two days it took me to read this book. He inspired me to make my summer vacation a civil war themed one.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT FOR "HARD CORE" CIVIL WAR BOORS
Review: Maybe I have been spoiled with some really great books on tape, but this one was only so-so. I picked up the unabridged version in the library (11 tapes) and although I usually preferr unabridged versions of books on tape, this one might be a better one to listen to in the abridged version. I think it is best geared for those with a serious interest in the Civil War.It is humerous and parts of it reminded me of "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson, though not nearly as funny. I want to know how you get a job like Horwitz and Bryson have, wandering the country for a year or more, meeting interesting people, seeing great sites and writting about it for money. This has got to be one great job. I didn't really like the narrator of the unabridged version although I didn't hate him. I enjoyed learning about reenactors and if you have ever seen a reenactment you can really appreciate what these people go through, farb or hard core alike. The Wargasm seemed a bit silly, just going to some of these spots like a scavenger hunt. It is a usefull way for Horwitz to give you alot of Civil War trivia, much of which most Civil War boors should already know. I definitely learned some new things. It was also interesting to listen to Horwitz' view of the current climate in the South as to race issues and the fight (still being fought) over the rebel flag. Horwitz may have over-done this portion of the book at least to the extent that he seems to argue that the South is still fighting the Civil War. A look at today's national political landscape might make one believe the South won the Civil War. G.W.Bush [Texas] or Al Gore [Tennessee] our next President; Bill & Hillary Clinton - especially Hillary taking over the Empire State! Just imagine what Lee and his fellow generals would say about a governor from Arkansas as President (all those character issues aside) and his wife as a Senator from New York. Able to vanquish the absolute worst of the Yankee scum without a single southern bullet or rebel yell! In the end, the South, as with the rest of the country, is dealing with issues of "race" and "hate" which, unfortuanately, has not been resolved and will probably be with us for some time to come.
Rating:
Summary: no farbs here, totally hardcore read
Review: I have spent a fascinated few weeks poring through Horwitz's new book on the "Unfinished war". For an Australian reader, there is obviously large gaps in our understanding of issues and especially the context of the war. I felt this gap was bridged to a large extent and was a fantastic history lesson overall. It was interesting to see the continuing interest in the civil war was problematised rather than derided or praised in simple terms. Although this is a nonfiction text, there are so many characters that leap off the pages with almost fictional energy. I really enjoyed the way Tony Horwitz came alive as an engaging tour guide to the events in the south. My daily lexicon now includes "totally hard core" and "farb" - brilliant concepts and wonderfully illustrated in this engaging book.
Rating:
Summary: Rob Hodge rules
Review: This is one of the most entertaining, informative and fascinatingly put together (not at all a hodge podge) non-fiction books I've ever read. Rob Hodge, in particular, is an incredible character, who, for all of his "eccentricity" is the one person who seems to transcend the ongoing acrimony of the Civil War, even as he plunges head first into it. Speaking as the descendant of Confederate officers, I find Horwitz extremely even handed, despite what so many other readers have to say. The question that rises again and again in my mind reading through these reviews is: why do those who pledge to never forget what their Confederate ancestors went through during the years of the war and reconstruction seem so much less concerned about what blacks went through as Southern slaves for two hundred years?
Rating:
Summary: Horwitz is one of the best journalists in the country
Review: let me begin this review by saying that I am somewhat of a Civil War aficionado. Having said that, no other book that I have read has bridged the ap between the Civil War and the present as well as Tony Horwitz's CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC. Horwitz, whose national reporting and war correspondence I have admired in the Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker, is once again in top form. The urbanity and sophistication of those two periodicals contrasts nicely with the rural south he reports on in this book. After moving to Virginia and meeting local Civil War reenactors, be takes a two year-long Odyssey through fourteen southern states to explore the legacy of the Civil War. William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor combined could not have created such a menegerie of bizarre southern gothic characters. On his voyage, he encounters Civil War reenactors so "hardcore" that their wives have left them. He encounters hate groups, explores the Confederate Flag controversey, investigates a racially motivated murder, ends up waist-deep in Confedeate kitch, and wanders into a meeting of the "children of the confederacy" eerily reminiscent of a Hitler-youth group. This book appeals to both northerners and southerners, because it accomplishes te seemingly contradictory tasks of appreciating southern heritage while satirizing the southerners who have not yet forgiven the "Yankees" for destroying their newly formed Confederacy. The names of the chapters "At the Foote of the master," "The Civil Wargasm," and "Gone With the Window" show how the author keeps a satirical tone while appreciating the legacy of the Civil War. This book is an incredible piece of scholarship and journalism.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent...
Review: I thought Confederates in the Attic was a great book, interesting and thought provoking. Horwitz did a great job on a book that was sometimes hysterically funny, often sad, and very informative. An interesting note; it was referenced in the back the same way a textbook would be. You don't have to know a lot about the Civil War to follow it either.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Journey !
Review: I have read many books about the Civil War and this was absolutely the most eye-opening. I learned more from this book than from any other and I experienced every emotion. Thank you Tony Horwitz . It was simply wonderful, from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts good then drags on.
Review: In the beginning this looks like an excellent book but I couldn't read any furture after completeing 2/3 of the book. I would say this is a collection of ramblings rather than a book. He never seems to get to a point and bounces between race relations in America and some civil war history with alot of the modern day re-enactment movement mixed in. Frankly I didn't learn alot from this book. I will give his technical ability a thumbs up but the story just wanders on and on ending knowhere.
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