Confederates in the Attic

Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Tony Horwitz

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Paperback

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English

Vintage Books
22 February 1999

History; History of the Americas; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Sociology: customs & traditions; Travel writing

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.

By: Tony Horwitz
Imprint: Vintage Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 132mm, Spine: 24mm
Weight: 313g
ISBN: 9780679758334
ISBN 10: 067975833X
Pages: 432
Publication Date: 22 February 1999
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

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. -Roy Blount Jr., New York Times Book 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 Horwitz's chronicle of his odyssey through the nether and ethereal worlds of Confederatemania is by turns amusing, chilling, poignant, and always fascinating. He has found the Lost Cause and lived to tell the tale 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