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Confederates in the Attic

by Tony Horwitz
Confederates in the Attic

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ISBN13: 9780679758334
ISBN10: 067975833X
Condition: Like New


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.

Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance.

In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'

Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and new ones 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.

Review

"In this sparkling book Horwitz explores some of our culture's myths with the irreverent glee of a small boy hurling snowballs at a beaver hat....An important contribution to understanding how echoes of the Civil War have never stopped." USA Today

Review

"[B]y turns amusing, chilling, poignant, and always fascinating....a wonderfully piquant tale of hard-core reenactors, Scarlett O'Hara look-alikes, and people who reshape Civil War history to suit the way they wish it had come out. If you want to know why the war isn't over yet in the South, read Confederates in the Attic to find out." James McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom

Review

"A book that begins as a thoughtful and entertaining investigation of the enduring Southern fascination with the Civil War becomes an extended, and not entirely friendly or fair, survey of the racial views of white Southerners.... He is right to argue that white Southerners must exorcise the legacy of slavery and racism that has troubled the history of the South. He goes too far when he suggests that they ought also to disavow their ancestors and repudiate their past." National Review, Mark G. Malvasi

Review

"Confederates in the Attic is the freshest book about divisiveness in America that I have read in some time....A splendid commemoration of the war and its Legacy....This rattling good read is an eyes-open, humorously no-nonsense survey of complicated Americans." The New York Times Book Review, Roy Blount Jr.

Review

"Hilariously funny." Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

Review

"[A] personal, penetrating glimpse at a slice of America many of us didn't know existed or would rather believe did not....Horwitz explores the intense fascination of the 'hard cores' with all things Civil War while coming to grips with his own, with neither judgment nor ridicule." The Boston Globe, Douglas Bailey

Synopsis

National Bestseller
For all who remain intrigued by the legacy of the Civil War -- reenactors, battlefield visitors, Confederate descendants and other Southerners, history fans, students of current racial conflicts, and more -- this ten-state adventure is part travelogue, part social commentary and always good-humored. Splendid. Roy Blount, Jr., The New York Times Book Review
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance.
In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'
Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and new ones 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War."

Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent takes us on an explosive adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where Civil War reenactors, battlefield visitors, and fans of history resurrect the ghosts of the Lost Cause through ritual and remembrance.

The freshest book about divisiveness in America that I have read in some time. This splendid commemoration of the war and its legacy ... is an eyes-open, humorously no-nonsense survey of complicated Americans. --The New York Times Book Review

For all who remain intrigued by the legacy of the Civil War--reenactors, battlefield visitors, Confederate descendants and other Southerners, history fans, students of current racial conflicts, and more--this ten-state adventure is part travelogue, part social commentary and always good-humored.

When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.

Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'

Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and the new 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways.


About the Author

Tony Horwitz first wrote about the South and the Civil War as a third-grader in Maryland when he pencilled a book that began: "The War was started when after all the states had sececed (sic)." He went on to write about war full-time as a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, reporting on conflicts in Bosnia, the Middle East, Africa, and Northern Ireland. After a decade abroad, Horwitz moved to a crossroads in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where he now works as a staff writer for The New Yorker.

Confederates in the Attic is Horwitz's third book, following the national bestseller, Baghdad Without A Map and other Misadventures in Arabia, and One For The Road: Hitchhiking Through the Australian Outback, to be reissued this year by Vintage. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1995, and the Overseas Press Club Award for best foreign news reporting in 1992, for his coverage of the Gulf War. Before becoming a reporter, Horwitz lived and worked in rural Kentucky and Mississippi and produced a PBS documentary about Southern timber workers.

A graduate of Brown University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, Horwitz and his wife — Geraldine Brooks, also a journalist and author — have a young son, Nathaniel. They live in Waterford, Virginia.


Author Q&A

Q: Where did you get the idea to write a book about the South and the Civil War?

A: It really began in childhood. While other boys in the 1960s built spaceship models and dressed as John Glenn for Halloween, I was busy painting Civil War battles on the walls of my attic bedroom. My parents thought I was strange. As I got older, my obsession shifted to the South in general, where I lived and worked for several years during and after college. I was fascinated by the South's fierce sense of identity and history, and by its troubled racial history.

Then I fell in love with an Australian (now my wife) and ended up following her overseas for ten years, where we worked as war correspondents. When I finally dragged her home to America in 1993, to rural Virginia, I was struck by how alive--and controversial--the Civil War remained in the South, even though Americans have managed to pretty much forget the rest of their history. I wanted to explore this contradiction--and also wanted an excuse to indulge my lifelong passion for the region and the War.

Q: How would you describe Confederates in the Attic? History? Sociology? Travelogue?

A: A bit of each. At heart it's a travel adventure that uses the Civil War as a lens through which to look at the contemporary South. There's a lot of history in the book, but it's mostly about how we remember the past and what that says about us in the present. The book's also a portrait of the places I go--cities like Charleston, Richmond, and Vicksburg, and the backcountry South from the Carolinas to the Mississippi--and the often bizarre characters I meet.

Q: Speaking of bizarre, a lot of the attention given to Confederates has focused on your experiences as a "hardcore" Civil War reenactor. Did that surprise you? Any other striking responses to the book?

A: I was a little surprised that people talked so much about the handful of reenacting episodes. I intended them mainly as comic relief, a break from the more serious chapters, such as the one on a racially-motivated murder and trial in Kentucky.

The most pleasant surprise for me is that more than half those attending my readings, or writing to me about the book, have been women. People tend to think of the Civil War as a "guy thing." But many women are drawn to the War, too, particularly in recent years, with the Ken Burns series and books like Cold Mountain.

Perhaps it's also that some of the most colorful characters in Confederates are women: a salty-mouthed Confederate widow in Alabama, a modern-day Scarlett O'Hara, a black activist in Selma, Alabama. They bring a very different perspective to the subject than the men I meet, many of whom are obsessed with battlefield history.

Q: Do you find a regional variation in responses to your book?

A: Absolutely. Most Southerners, I think, read the book with some sense of recognition--and often with a degree of defensiveness. They're accustomed to talking openly about issues such as race and regional identity, which makes for very lively and occasionally fiery discussions (I was heckled at one reading). At the same time, I think Southerners have a better-developed sense of humor than other Americans and they really respond to the comic parts of the book.

A lot of Northern readers, on the other hand, seem stunned and a bit uneasy about what's in the book. They keep asking me, "Is it really like that down South?" They often can't believe that so many Southerners are still wrapped up in the Civil War and remain unapologetic supporters of the Confederacy.

All of which confirms for me one of the central themes of the book--that the Civil War is still being fought, and that the South remains a very distinct region.

Q: In many ways, this is a book about obsession--yours as well as the nation's--with the past. What's the psychological root of this?

A: There isn't one, easy answer to that. But I do think most of the people I met share a low-grade discontent with modern life. We're very lucky to live at a time in our history that's prosperous and secure. But it's also an era that seems to lack meaning and drama--at least compared to the 1860s, when people lived and died for grand causes.

I also think a lot of people, myself included, feel oppressed by America's TV culture and strip-mall sameness. The Civil War's a way to flee all that, to enter a landscape and way of life that seem somehow more romantic and more real than our own. I guess that's what I wanted to do with this book--escape for awhile and take readers along for the ride.


4.8 5

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Average customer rating 4.8 (5 comments)

`
Hera , February 12, 2014 (view all comments by Hera)
'Confederates in the Attic' is a joy to read . Funny ,while at the same time touching , author Tony Horwitz enters into the strange world of Civil War re-enactors . He discloses the tricks of the trade , the differences between the amateurs and the career re-enactors . Entire families compete for prized battlefield placement , authentic costumes,food and arms . Many have become extras in movies and television and the competition is fierce . Friendships are formed ,feuds begun ,in the quest for battlefield positioning . Personal lives are planned around famous battle anniversaries , camps set up ,and all connection with the present world is left behind .

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Nancy Lambert , January 06, 2011
Delightful read! Couldn't put it down. Funny, honest and page turner. I recommend it highly.

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BSullivan , January 01, 2011
Horwitz knows how to bring cold stone monuments alive and into fascinating relief against a living, breathing Civil War brought down the ages and nursed in our Southern fringes. Dispensing with an historian's conceit, he artlessly jumps into the world of hard-core re-enactors and searches out primary Confederate texts, first-hand accounts, and real-life characters for a sometimes humorous but always respectful exploration of an American mindset.

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Ashley Bowen , October 05, 2010 (view all comments by Ashley Bowen)
I absolutely loved this book. Frankly, I ended up picking the topic of my master's thesis after reading this a few summers back. Horwitz writes engagingly and critically of a hobby that feels uniquely American: Civil War re-enacting. The book is about much more than this hobby, however. Re-enacting is used as a way into the contemporary South and all the the cultural baggage that goes along with life in the shadow of the Confederacy. His book goes from battlefields to dead or dying factory towns in GA and AL, to meetings of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the halls of museums. Part travelogue, part cultural commentary Horwitz helps readers understand why re-enacting continues to captivate so many people (and confuse so many others).

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RBHolb , October 31, 2006 (view all comments by RBHolb)
Four years of war seem to define the United States more than any other historical era. Our politics, our culture, our society have either been shaped by the Civil War, or are a reaction to it. The gray states have turned to red states, but the divisions are no less real than they were in the 1860s. Tony Horwitz has done an excellent job of exploring, if not explaining, the aftershocks of the war. His own fascination with the subject lets him report without irony, even when the subjects of his reportage are downright bizarre. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the impact of historical myth.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679758334
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
02/22/1999
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Series info:
Vintage Departures
Pages:
432
Height:
.95IN
Width:
5.16IN
Thickness:
1.00
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1999
Series Volume:
FS-081-98
Author:
Tony Horwitz
Subject:
United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
Subject:
History
Subject:
US History-1800 to Civil War
Subject:
Southern states
Subject:
United States - History - Civil War, 1861-
Subject:
United states
Subject:
Horwitz, Tony - Journeys - Southern States

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