Book 6: Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Finished: January 21
Pages: 406

Perhaps, if I had read this book during history class, either in high school or in college, I might have made better grades than C’s. This is my kind of history: still alive and told in a narrative form. Although some might argue that Horwitz’s book is more a travelogue than a history book, I would say that he bring history to life by discussing historical moments in context with the modern repercussions. This book is complex, and addresses complex ideas and thoughts in an easy to read, easy to agree with look into Southern life that (mostly) lacks judgment, which is remarkable.
Although I'm from a technically Southern state, and many would automatically label me such, I have always considered myself Texan, and therefore even more distanced from the Civil War (or "The War of Northern Aggression" as my father loves to say). I spent many a childhood summer touring and being bored by touring Civil War Battlefields, and museums, and houses. I have, however, come to realize that my childhood boredom barely scratched the surface when it comes to the Civil War.
If I could sum up this whole book in one quote it would be this one, from one of the chapters on Virginia: "Everywhere it seemed, I had to explore two pasts and two presents; one white, one black, separate and unreconcilable. The past had poisoned the presetn and the present, in turn, now poisoned remembrance of things past" (208). Although this maybe started out as one man trying to reclaim his childhood love of the Civil War, in the end it became an exploration of the questions that anyone studying the Civil War is inevitably called to answer: is it racist to remember and/or honor the Civil War? How do we talk about the Civil War without either becoming apologetic or revenge seeking? How can we honor men who were killed fighting for something they might or might not have believed in?
Schools today gloss over this point in history, either out of a misplaced sense of shame, or a way of avoiding arguments. Horwitz has some interesting observations about how deeply the war affected our schools, discussing racial tensions in classrooms, desegregation, voluntary segregation, even curriculum. He also had some interesting observations from people he encountered, some insightful, some humorous, some down-right sad.
About students in schools, a teacher observed:
"I've taught two generations now, and this one is different. They're much thinner-skinned than kids used to be, but at the same time more insensitive to others" (375)
About the Rebel Battle Flag, the only living Confederate widow observed:
"One flag can just as well fly as another. But it's not worth no fuss and fight. Blacks all hate it. And you know, there's lots of people that's colored that's better than any whites. Some of the whites are the sorriest you ever seen" (342)
About slavery from a Black store clerk:
"Say your mother's sister's son, he's got slaves. You gonna say to him, 'Let's fight over it?' C'mon now, no way What you really gonna say is this." He paused for a moment, then continued in a perfect-pitch parody of redneck dialect: 'Hey, Billy Joe, whatever you want to do with those niggers is okay by me. Keep 'em in chains, what the fuck. Your momma is my momma's sister" (266).

And last, but not least, Jefferson Davis, in his last public speech, ironically written on a monument behind a Flag Day rally promoting white Southern Pride:
"The past is dead; let it bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations; before you lies the future. Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to take your places int he ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished--a reunited country" (113).

If only the South had listened to Davis's advice, perhaps our fascination with the Ward Between the States would be purely historical, without the rancor that still haunts our discussions today.

Good Reading,
Caitlin