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Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War - Tony Horwitz
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
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3.86 175
National Bestseller 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... show more
National Bestseller 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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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780679758334 (067975833X)
ASIN: 067975833X
Publisher: Vintage
Pages no: 406
Edition language: English
Bookstores:
Community Reviews
Chris' Fish Place
Chris' Fish Place rated it
4.0 The whole flag thing? You should read this.
Rather enlightening about how the Civil War is viewed in different parts of the country.
AmySea
AmySea rated it
Hm. Interesting. Complex. Appalling. Enlightening. Already this book has launched me onto a quest for greater understanding of the Civil War. What I liked:1) Robert Lee Hodge. Fascinating man with a unique perspective on the actual war as opposed to the romanticized ideal of it. It was Hodge...
jmills01
jmills01 rated it
4.0 Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
From the title "Confederates in the Attic" I was expecting a different book - perhaps the story of some family's hidden confederate past. What I got instead was a surprisingly moving account of the south at the end of the 20th century. I'm from the south, though only barely (Louisville is a city w...
The Tipsybibliophile
The Tipsybibliophile rated it
5.0
Truly fascinating book about the fascination/obsession that still remains in the South for the Civil War. The writing was outstanding, humorous and very engaging. Glad I read this.
A Book and A Review #2
A Book and A Review #2 rated it
2.0
This book has def. been a "trip" for me. Horwitz shows the Confederacy is alive and well with some in the South. I found the book humorous, however..there was a underlying feeling in the pit of my stomach that Horwitz wrote this book in a mocking, condescending manner..which I had a really hard time...
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