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| Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War | 
 enlarge | Author: Tony Horwitz
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $5.49
You Save: $10.46 (66%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (257 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2919
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 067975833X
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7
EAN: 9780679758334
ASIN: 067975833X
Publication Date: February 22, 1999
Release Date: February 22, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The War seen through the Prism of the Civil Rights Movement July 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the beginning of his work, Tony lays down the question that the reader expects will guide the course of the book: why does the War remain so important and prominent in the consciousness of Americans, even, and especially, amongst persons who have no family connection? In consideration of the fact that the War primarily was fought south of the Mason-Dixon (Gettysburg and a few major exceptions aside), Tony plans an impressive survey of the Southern States. His journeys take him from North Carolina, which he amusingly relates as trapped between two prideful neighbors, to the Deep South states of Mississippi and Alabama, where Martin Luther King and the racial struggles are of recent memory. He does not visit all the Confederate states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are excluded) but he does manage forays into the border states of Kentucky and Maryland. A list of sites visited is impressive: Fort Sumter, Sharpsburg, Appomattox Court House, Chacellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Five Forks, Andersonville, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Shiloh, Manassas, the towns of the Shenadoah Valley. These are just a few that come to mind; there are many others.
Tony's approach for each state is consistent. He first goes to those cities or battlefields that are of known historical importance. Once there, he seeks historical societies or persons to whom he is referred. Two societies that continually appear in the work are the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and their female counterpart, the United Daughters of the Confederacy. He conducts informal interviews, and uses the information provided as a spring for further unplanned encounters in the environs. Inter-weaved with his solo treks are Tony's adventures with Rob Hodge, a "hardcore" re-enactor who crusades for the complete realization of Civil War realism, and who deplores modern intrusions.
I commend Tony Horwitz for attempting to dig beneath the surface, to make analogies and historical connections. He patiently listens to whom he calls neo-Confederates as they expatiate upon their views of the War, the meaning of flying the Confederate (Battle) Flag and how the official history of the war (written by the Northern invaders) distorts the truth behind the South's motives. He also shows that not all Southerners think alike on the War and on the flag issue. Some have little care for the heritage of the War, but have inherited and appropriated symbols of the Cause for their own cause: e.g. using the Confederate (Battle) Flag as a sign of rebellion against the status quo, or as a standard of white supremacy. Some Southerners go so far as to agree: The War is over. Let's get over it. The Southern blacks with whom Tony converses are preponderately opposed to the show of Confederate pride. Interestingly, at the end of the book, Tony relates of black schoolchildren who are just as cynical of Northern motives as they are those Southern. North or South, no difference, the leaders of both were white, i.e. racist against blacks. Even Abraham Lincoln does not escape criticism; the schoolchildren regard him as a "benevolent racist." (367)
Where Tony excels in his reporting, witticisms and the lucid, engaging tone that prevails throughout the work, there are several areas that significantly detract from the quality of an otherwise excellent piece of non-fiction. As the title of my review suggests, Tony understands the War as seen through the prism of the Civil Rights Movement. The two chapters that conclude the work, "I Had a Dream" and "Strike the Tent," in their contents serve as the interpretive crux of all the preceding chapters. In early chapters, Tony is cautious with his personal views, but finally he cannot hold them in any longer and lets loose (paralleling his explosive argument with Rose Sanders, a school teacher). He begins with a manifesto that, while in childhood the Civil War fancied his mind, it was the occurrences of the 1960's, in particular the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles that accompanied them, which developed his "political consciousness" (370). This is fine, except he conflates the racial issues of the 1960's with the issues of the War in the 1860's. Subsequent to this loose conflation, all manner of wild reflections are drawn. Race, segregation and discrimination, huge factors from the racial wars of the 1960's until today, become key issues in the War Between the States. Overcoming these issues would mean a unified country, where people believe and live alike, regardless of class, race or any other distinguishing characteristic. Great idealism, but were the historical motives of the War really of that ideal or to the extent that Tony imposes on it? Because what Tony sees in the South does not fully live up to his own ideal, he concludes wholesale rejection, rather than critical acceptance of what is good and rejection of that which is bad, as the best course of action. He facilely equates the traditional Southern view of the War as "propaganda," and he entertains the notion that the South would be better if it forgot its [War] history, since its history intrinsically relates to the racial strife and inequality of the 20th century. (376) "You Wear Your X, I'll Wear Mine" (in reference to Malcolm X and the design of the Confederate Flag respectively) is Tony's oft-repeated phrase of disgust, which also functions as his experience of the South as an entity: each side, Southern White and Southern Black, having its own history, but each of whose history is fueled by racial prejudices. Both must go.
In consequence on Tony's fixation on the issue of race, he cannot see the "States' Rights" argument as anything more than a concocted veneer to legitimatize darker motives: slavery and the assertion of racial superiority. Unfortunately, Tony does not even address the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which long before the Confederacy advocated states ' rights in the face of an oppressive federal government. Neither does he address the different views of the Founding Fathers regarding the union and whether it was an unbreakable union or one which the states made and from which they could secede under certain conditions.
In the end, Tony Horwitz's presentation of the South is amusing, if wanting at times, especially in the evaluative concluding chapters. After writing so well and humorously on re-enacting, it is disheartening and a sneer, even when taken as jest, for him to conclude of re-enactment activities as "childish things." (388) He makes mention of the "Irreconcibles," a group of Confederates and their descendants that remains to this day in Brazil; but Tony laments he could not visit them. This is a true tragedy. Had Tony visited, he may have gained some illumination as to the Confederacy and the motives behind the Confederacy, and its self-professed advocates of today. The Civil Rights Movement did not impact Brazil as it did the U.S., and the perspectives there would provide a unique complement.
 Fun, fair & worth every penny July 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As will be the case with all my reviews, I'm going to record my reaction to the book, not summarize it. If you want to know what the book is all about, read a few of the longer reviews (which, at the time of this writing, numbered about 250.) Or better yet, buy it; it'll only cost you $10.17. Plus shipping, of course - and sales tax, if you live in Washington State.
I approached this book with a full head of righteous indignation. I was ready to be pissed off. I expected a hatchet job. How could anything written about the South by a self-proclaimed liberal, ex-union organizer named Tony be anything other than another perfunctory slap - if maybe a comical slap - at all those redneck, racist , reactionary, drawling good ole boys down there at the bottom of the country - who, moreover, have the temerity to vote Republican? (Full disclosure: I am white, retired, live in Washington State, and voted for Reagan. Twice.) Boy was I wrong! (About the book - not about Reagan.) Maybe I'm too old or dumb to deal with subtle innuendo, but on a quick first reading this book was fun, informative in a non-threatening way - and fair. Sure, the author talked to some people I'm happy I've never met, but heck, there are plenty of those right here in the Pacific Northwest, and I run into them all the time. This book introduced me to some interesting, even fascinating, people - Rob Hodges (on the cover) was worth the price of admission all by himself. Some advice to the potential reader: if you're looking for sober, closely reasoned political or psychological enlightenment, buy some other book - this one, while serious in places, is mainly just good, honest fun. And some advice to the author: Tony - stay out of biker bars. We want you around to write more books.
Thanks, Tony July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Well, ever since my seven year sojourn in Frederiksburg, Va., I've been trying to understand the jaundiced eye with which so many people in the south view that war, and the north. I guess the best thing that Horwitz gave us was Shelby Foote's explanation: the war was fought in their front yards. (except for Gettysburg...and here and there in Indiana and Ohio and D.C.) Also, I think they love the glorious romantic sense of loss of it all.
I loved reading this book. Horwitz is a smart fun guy.
 What Fun June 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A superb book. I'd have given it four and a half stars if possible. It doesn't merit five stars because of some repetitive sections. Laugh out loud funny in parts, ponderous (in a good way), well-researched, and eye-opening. This was a really fun book to read.
Gonzo journalism at its finest June 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Gonzo journalism: Reporting done by a reporter who is deeply, subjectively involved in what s/he is reporting. Reviewers have called Horwitz condescending. I didn't find him so. I found him very emotionally involved with some of the people he met. But some of the people were just funny.
The subtitle of the book is "Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War." So Horwitz writes about people for whom the war has not ended. It is not an exhaustive sociological study of the contemporary south, and should not be judged as such.
I won't repeat all the observations that have already been made. I learned a lot from this book. For people who enjoyed the book, I want to recommend Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer. It covers four groups who came to America for "freedom" - Puritans, Quakers, Virginia royalists and "Scots-Irish".
The Quakers and Puritans wanted the "freedom" to micromanage each others lives in order to create a rigidly moralistic heaven on earth. The royalists and, especially, the Scots-Irish wanted the "freedom" to do anything they damn well wanted, including enslaving other people. It is easy to see how this "oil and water" mix lead to the civil war.
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