Confederates in the Attic

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but Elitist
Review: First off, kudos to Horwitz for his talent at writing. It's breezy, fast paced and full of good turn-of-a-phrase writing that keeps the reader interested. Having said that, he still could have benefited from a bit of editing. Loping off 100 pages would have helped as the book did drag till the end.

I first found the book lively and engaging, but as I went deeper into its pages, I began to get an uneasy sense of Horwitz's prejudice. The emerging elitist tone of the book comes through and leaves the reader uncomfortable. He seems to use his pen as a brush that paints all Southerners as backwoods, racist, hillbilly rubes. In Confederates In the Attic, Horwitz has created a kind of reverse Amos and Andy for the 90s.

This would be a fun book to read if there wasn't such an undercurrent of meanness and intolerance in his writings. The worst moments come in the chapter "Dying For Dixie". In it, a young African-American male guns down a young white father of newborn twins solely because he had a rebel flag flying from his truck. Was anyone else disturbed by how Horwitz went out of his way to smear the reputation of the murdered man? How about Horwitz's sympathetic portrait of the killer? It's actually downright scary to read. It's the kind of "blame the victim" journalism that I doubt Horwitz would ever try on a rape victim.

On the flip side, Horwitz every now and then comes up with some penetrating insight. He made a brilliant observation that, like in 1861, we are once again wondering if America will remain one nation - that today we are losing our sense of a common people with common principles and starting to fracture along class, race and gender lines. If Horwitz had spent more time using his travels to expand on issues like this it would have made for a more powerful book. That and a little less disdain for the proletariat.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining and educational book
Review: CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC by Tony Horwitz

Americans are fascinated by the Civil War. Not only the battlefields of Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh and the rest, but also the controversy over the reasons for the war. Whether the defense of the institution of slavery was the main justification for the war or whether the South fought in order to maintain their way of life is a question even today. This controversy lives on as exemplified by the current flap over whether or not the Confederate flag should continue to fly over the South Carolina State Capitol.

A select few of the modern day prejudices and obsessions are delineated in this delightful book. Horwitz has documented his own fascination and that of many others whom he met in various trips around the South.

Some are the fanatic 'reenactors' of Civil War battles while others are those organizations and individuals honoring the 'lost cause.'

One 'hardcore reenactor' (he prefers to be called a living historian) is Robert Lee Hodge, who Horwitz followed around on some of his reenactments. This man is the epitome of an obsessed person. Whether it's demonstrating the Rebel Yell or imitating the bloating of dead soldiers, Hodge is endeavoring to reproduce exactly the surroundings and actions of the Civil War soldier. The books' author follows him into such masochistic endeavors as sleeping in a mosquito-laden swamp because that's what the Johnny Rebs sometimes had to do.

On a more serious note, the author investigates some of those organizations dedicated to preserving the old South. Examples are The Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy. These clubs also are interested in preserving the history of the Confederacy.

More disturbing is the evidence of profound racial prejudice that was found by the author.

Many other facets of todays' fascination with the War Between the States are explored in this entertaining and educational book.

Rating:
Summary: Ran outta gas
Review: This book started strong, keeping me rapt, but dragged at the end. Unlike a lot of the previous reviewers, I thought the emphasis on reënactment was rather dull. More interesting were Horwitz's conversations with Shelby Foote and Lee Collins, the HPA president in Atlanta. Collins made a great point when he said the Stars and Stripes flew over slavery for 80 years, while the battle flag never did. I also disagree with other Southerners that this book was totally biased. Sure it was written by a bleeding-heart Yankee, but I thought he did a fairly good job of keeping his personal views quiet, with a few notable exceptions.

I must warn Yankees, however, that this book doesn't really give a great example of what you should expect to encounter when you come to the South. Yes, Southerners take pride in being Southern and honor their Confederate heroes, but it's not as immediate a concern to most people as Horwitz would have you believe. Southerners mainly just don't like always being portrayed by the Northern media as rednecks and racists, when the North has just as many of both. Often this is why we hold dear our Confederate heritage as a kind of fraternal solidarity-bloc to fend off Northern bias.

All in All, good read...in short, you won't put it down before you're done.

Rating:
Summary: A Fresh Look at the Civil War and the Modern Day South
Review: As a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, the author is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. As a child, he was obsessed with the Civil War, and this book, written with the ripened talent of a true professional, rings with personal penetrating insights as he explores battlefields and shrines, back roads and public buildings.

Mostly though, it is the people he encounters who bring the book to life. He is fascinated by, and finally joins, the "re-enactors" -- people who devote their lives to reliving the Civil War and re-enact the experience for festivals and theatrical productions as well as for their own personal satisfaction. The uniforms must be authentic as well as the discomfort they encounter, sleeping in muddy fields, being bitten by mosquitoes, eating only foods that were available at the time and actually living for a weekend or a month in time and place that exists only in the 1860s and in their imagination.

Well researched and full of myths, anecdotes and historical facts, this view of the Civil War and the people whose lives are still held captive by its legacy made fascinating reading. The South comes alive in new ways for me, not only as it was during the Civil War, but how it is now.

You don't have to be a Civil War buff to love this book. But, beware. You might just become one after reading it.

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Proof of Why the South Can't Rise Again. It Never Fell.
Review: An excellent read. I couldn't put it down. An excellent and funny account of one man's journey to understand his own and the present day South's obsession with the Civil War. I wish more of the unreconstructed rebels who live in the South today could take themselves with the same amount of seriousness and humor that Mr. Horwitz does. I spent my first 18 years in Massachussetts, and the last 18 in North Carolina, and this is the best and most balanced account of understanding how and why the Civil War is still so important in the South. Mr. Horwitz does a service by showing that all devotees to the Lost Cause are not right wing crackpots from the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder. He shows there are as many reasons for the devotion as there are devotees. I hope many in the South note his observations concerning the ongoing urbanization of the South with all the strip malls and fast food joints covering up and encroaching upon the battlefields and formerly rural communities. While I am out of sympathy with the Confederacy and what it stands for, I wish that the historical sense Mr. Horwitz found throughout the South at all levels was as strong in the North. As many of these reviews indicate, Northerners just want the South to "get over it", but that's easier said than done. Mr. Horwitz shows there are too many reminders, living and marble and concrete for Southerners to just get over it. On the other hand, he also revealed among many of the people he met, an appalling lack of knowledge of the facts of history. I recommend this book as a starting point for learning more about the war and its consequences for the South and the Nation, so the memory of the Confederacy won't be abused as it is now by many groups that use it to justify and legitimize their stands and actions. This book is for anyone who wants to understand the mind of the South today. You don't have to be a Civil War buff or Daughter of the Confederacy to enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: words from an attic
Review: As a son of Alabama, (who now lives in Alaska), I want to say "Bravo" to Mr. Horwitz. Though he does not live in the South, he has captured the complexity and the ambiguity of the South and has packaged it in such a way as to be neither patronizing nor demeaning. I have never read such an even-handed treatment of life in the modern-day American South. He portrayed the racial truce with sensitivity, and carefully deconstructed some of the Antebellum myths (with which many of us were raised). It is difficult to find a pidgeon-hole for this book's genre. After reflection, I believe this is due to the fact that Horwitz wrote without a specific agenda, e.g., to defame the South or to bring discredit to its people-groups. His style is photographic: Here is the photo; the interpretation is up to you.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, not just about the Civil War, but about us.
Review: Though it starts slowly, the book gains momentum quickly.

This "vision-quest" book, undertaken at a period in the author's life when he was obviously nostalgic and retrospective about his family and his childhood is a wonderful read. His travels are well documented, the people he meets are extreme examples of his subject matter, and his ability to weave them into his overall story are masterful.

I even discovered some things about myself while reading this book. I began reading it on the plane from DC to Hawaii, where I was to begin a much needed two week vacation. As I read it, I thought about the many things I'd planned to do in Hawaii. I especially thought about his travels, and the descriptions of his traveling environs and companions (except the chickens - you'll understand when you read the book), and how he went from Super Farb to Super Hardcore. I began to think about the book again as I was walking, just as the last bit of sunshine faded from the horizon and I realised that I didn't have a flashlight, through an active lava field with tripod, cameras, film, lenses, a walkie-talkie with ear piece and push-to-talk microphone, special hiking books and special hiking slacks and shirt, gore-tex hat and jacket, that his transformation from Farb to Hardcore, had applications in sections of my own life. Perhpaps, in all our lives.

As a southerner by birth (Louisiana), someone who lives in Virginia, a short distance from many of the locations mentioned in the book, and a person whose family claims both no Civil War involvement (they arrived in the US in 1889) on one side, and a direct relationship to General Hooker on the other (arrived in 1670), I found this book full of interesting tidbits about the War, the South of this era, and land on which the war took place.

The Author's travels, the people he meets, and the sidetracks he takes on his own personal journey make wonderful reading.

As a side note, I didn't realize that the gentleman on the cover was the author's traveling companion on much of his journey. Frankly, I thought it was a period photograph of a real soldier. Super Hardcore...

And, somewhere, some tourist has a photo of the author, in full civil war hardcore uniform, taking a whiz. Love to see that on Ebay soon.

Do not read this book to discover new information about a war in the 1860's. DO read this book to see how it is still with us, what one man discovered on a very strange "vision-quest."

I guarentee you will take something positive about yourself, your family, or your nation away from this book. There is truth here, funny truth, sad truth, historic truth and ironic truth.

Rating:
Summary: More revisionist history from a yankee view
Review: Tony tries to keep us involved in the War Between the States arena by walking us through several battlefields and something that is referred to as a "Civil Wargasm", or attempting to recreate the paths of confederate soldiers through Virginia and bits of Maryland and Pennsylvania. What he accomplishes is more northern bigotry against any and all Southern culture and people, especially those who revere their past. As long as one doesn't try to draw any historical or sociological conclusions, "Confederates in the Attic" is a 'cute' little book. I would, however, not recommend it for the Civil War Buffs' library.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Five Best of 1998
Review: This book, written by a local author, was another book I found after hearing about it on NPR. I was worried that the author's comments, great in interview format, might not translate as well to a travel/historical/sociological book. They do. Seldom does an author weave those three elements and anecdotal stories into a thoughtful book. In Horwitz' case, his experience writing long pieces for WSJ and The New Yorker, shows.

To me, a good book becomes great when it inspires me to find other books like it or with a similar subject matter. This book inspired me to read Tim Egan's Lasso the Wind, a similar book about the West. Read them back to back and you'll understand things about the South and West that you'd never considered.

Finally, I really don't like the South. I've traveled through it extensively and I've always felt woefully out of place. I was worried I wouldn't enjoy this book for that reason too. Wrong again. This is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty revealing
Review: Not all of Horwitz's only loosely-connected chapters in this very episodic book are as good as the others, but this book nevertheless captures much that is deadly accurate (and often very funny) about the current obsession with the Civil War and the South's need to reclaim its history (in this, I think the book is even finer than V. S. Naipaul's A TURN IN THE SOUTH). Horwitz seems very fair in his coverage, despite what his few vocal critics listed below might say; nevertheless, I found the criticism of him very interesting--I learned a great amount reading the comments below (many of which seemed mostly to bolster Horwitz's claims rather than takle away from them!).