Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War | 
| Author: Tony Horwitz
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  253 reviews
Sales Rank: 6443
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Text is free of writing. Book shows reading wear.
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Amazon.com
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from years of traipsing through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War had caught up with him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter people who reenact the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued, he wound up having some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping to get what they lovingly term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways in which it resonates today. In the course of his work, he made a sobering side trip to cover a murder that was provoked by the display of the Confederate flag, and he spoke to a number of people seeking to honor their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Horwitz has a flair for odd details that spark insights, and Confederates in the Attic is a thoughtful and entertaining book that does much to explain America's continuing obsession with the Civil War.
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 248 more reviews...
 Fun, fair & worth every penny July 5, 2008
1 out of 1 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
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.
Don't judge it by it's cover! June 10, 2008
The only thing that can deter people from buying this book is the cover. The cover will lead someone to believe that the book is about dumb rednecks that can't let something go. Once the reader understands and finds out that person poising on the cover is one of the "hardcores", Robert Lee Hodge, you will understand what is all about. The books does pesent all views. Plus, the added fact that Tony Horwitz is jewish brings a different insight to this American subculure. If your a serious buff of the "War Between the States" or the "War for States Rights" then I do not reccomend this book. If your are from the south or any other part of the world then you should buy this book ASAP! Very entertaining.
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