National Bestseller 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. “Splendid.†–Roy Blount; Jr.; The New York Times Book Review 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.
#576010 in Books Fraser; Antonia 1993-11-30 1993-11-30Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x 1.10 x 5.20l; 1.15 #File Name: 067973001X496 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Certainly thorough; but . . .By Rum RunnerI'm a big fan of Antonio Fraser. Her Marie Antoinette biography was sensational. "Wives" is good; but can be really tough going most of the way through because of the incredibly complex genealogy of the English nobility of that age -- and she leaves hardly a single ancestor; cousin; brother-in-law or grandfather out.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An account of Henry VIII and his wives worth readin.By Elizabeth M. EmilssonFraser gave interesting portrait s of the wives of Henry the eighth. She insights on each of them that different from the romanticized versions I had read before. Although only two of them lost their heads ; life was precarious in Henry 's court as he grew older and became more desparat to begat a son.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Take a look....By MarshaCouldntCareLessThe book was fantastic in a lot of ways. Miss Fraser covered all of the details I am already familiar with as an avid fan of Tudor history and biographies but she also threw some facts into the narrative that I am not so familiar with.If you haven't ready anything by her yet than this will be a good place to start. Highly recommended!
