Confederates in the Attic

Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

By: Tony Horwitz

Narrated by: Michael Beck

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.©1999 Tony Horwitz; (P)1999 Random House, Inc., Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"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

Thoughtful and well executed

A must read for anyone interested in the evolution of the impact of the Civil War.

Returning it

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Probably not.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

he did a fantastic job with voices, but skipped while paragraphs, which sort of made me confused and angry.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I have to fit class, but I wouldn't do it normally.

Any additional comments?

if I didn't have to read this fir class, I'd return it. I'm not impressed

One glaring problem

This is a fine book, but you'll have to overcome some startling Southern "accents" if you listen to it. If you have an ear for accents, or if you come from one of the places Horwitz visited, you'll simply have to make allowances for the reader's tin ear or else develop thicker skin than I have.

Down to earth

This has been one of the most enjoyable and informational books I have. It started out with me laughing as I drove to work listening to it. But, after the first couple of chapters it was spellbinding. The writer is much like most 'Civil War' buffs with it being set in our time frame. As he travels through the south, meeting many different types of people, it was remarkable to realize the changes that still wrench some of the south's families.
I have a friend that travels with me on my ‘history’ trips (our families hate history) and she is black and I am white. I had never given it much thought until I listened to this book. We have so far only traveled in the north. If gives you pause to think of how a minority, I am sure, of people would be offended as we explore. One of the things that amazed me the most is how the author puts this all in a light of understanding and patience even though he found it offensive. I had never thought before about the southern war heros not having the same recognition as the north's. My friend is listening to this book now and I am so anxious to get her take on it.

One of the Best books I have ever read

I am a student in history; though this book is not a history book. It is closer to a sociology book of the South. A Mr. Horwitz interaction with the southern characters shows their warmth, but also many of the chosen ignorance of people in general. I had read this book but downloaded it when I joined Audible. I was not disappointed. But keep in mind it is not a history book but a book of our times. My only frustration was that it ended at all and that Mr. Horwitz has not written another like it.