** spoiler alert **
“Abraham Lincoln, King of the Jews, Pinchebeck britches and cowbelly shoes.” A tune sung by a woman named Haynes, just one of the view characters that are met in this story. King of Jews to signify that he was like Moses because he led slaves to freedom. Tony Horwitz author of Confederates in the Attic, takes readers on a journey where he travels all around the South to find out more information on the civil war based on interviewing proud Southerners and hard-core reanactors of the civil war itself. He keeps an open mind to what each person has to say regardless of what their view on the civil war is and how it still is a conflict citizens are still facing today. He engages his readers by transitiononing from one place to another.

From North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, all they way to Alabama Horwitz takes us all over to hear stories of the civil war because of his great passion and interest for it. In chapter one he meets hardcore reenactors to the point where they don’t even want to be called actors. “How did you become a reenactor?” He grimaced. The professionals as they liked to call themselves felt more alive when they played the role of Confederates in the civil war it was a way of life to them it was like a rush in reality their jobs were as simple as being a pharmacist or nurse but when they “fought” in the civil war they were more than your average joe. Horwitz himself didn’t mind reenacting because he himself was very interested in the civil war.

A chapter that I read in class was chapter 5 and we had a class discussion based on what we thought was the root cause for the dilemma that went on. Here were my thoughts. Michael Westerman asked for a death wish when he drove to an area that was strongly against the rebel flag and he waved around the rebel flag on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And this started recently, way after the civil war. I believe the root cause for this was ignorance and jealousy for black people having the same rights as them because they no longer felt special, when he waived around that flag he felt a sense of power. "That same weekend, a nineteen-year-old named Michael Westerman drove through Guthrie with a rebel flag flying from his pickup." I liked this chapter because it got me thinking about how ridiculous that despite the war being over, its something that some Southerner's cant just let go.


Another character whom caught my interest was in found in chapter 6. Foote was an author who wrote about the civil war and unlike most famous authors he didn’t have someone answering his phones instead he would always answer his own phone, he felt as if it was unnecessary for someone to answer it for him. He supported the rebel flag but at the same time he knew it was misused because he believed that white supremacists groups misused the flag to support slavery. Foote admired Nathan Forrest, the Klan’s first imperial wizard. He felt like Forrest’s klan was right because even though it was anti-black it wasn’t meant to attack all blacks. “It was trying to keep illiterate blacks from occupying positions like sheriff and judge.” After reading this chapter I felt disappointed on still how ignorant people are today because all I thought was how do you think they became illiterate in the first place?. I felt like I was with Foote and Horwitz without really being there in person.


I learned a lot about the civil war from a different point of view from a group of interesting but unusual people who defend having Dixie being played at their schools. Horwitz did a fine job by getting every exact detail of the characters in this book however as I read the story I felt it going by very slowly and a few time I was bored but I’m not a big fanatic of the civil war but nonetheless it was an alright book.