Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic takes the reader through a tour of a New South still stuck in the Old and demonstrates its complex relationship with the American Civil War. Through his anecdotes and interviews, Horwitz gives the reader seemingly candid perceptions of the War. These help explain why it is that the South continues to be so stalwartly devoted to the War like no other part of the country: the War still rages in their minds. His mixed use of modern perceptions and historical analysis works well for analyzing the Civil War from both points of remembrance and reality.
The book shows that the populace of the South continues to observe the War in a similar way as they did in the 1860s: the War was for the independence of the …show more content…
Through Mauriel Joslyn’s collection of correspondence between Confederate prisoners and Northern women, Horwitz shows that many of the people involved in the War did not necessarily view all of those on the opposing side as enemies. Those men and women were able to conduct friendly – if sometimes romantic – relationships with the supposed foes through those letters. Moreover, the letters help to ground and soften the image of prisoners of war since some of it “told of prisoners who washed clothes for fellow inmates, or taught them ballroom dance.” This chapter also reflects the Civil War by competently describing a regularly snubbed but extremely noteworthy part of the War: POW camps. It shows a realistic and grim portrayal of these camps which were as dreadful as the battles and took thousands of soldiers out of the fight. The conditions were so horrid that “some despairing prisoners intentionally crossed the deadline” in order to be shot rather than continue suffering in the camp. The glory and grandeur that is consistently attributed to battles is nowhere to be seen with the camps showing a more faithful approach to the horrors of the
The book shows that the populace of the South continues to observe the War in a similar way as they did in the 1860s: the War was for the independence of the …show more content…
Through Mauriel Joslyn’s collection of correspondence between Confederate prisoners and Northern women, Horwitz shows that many of the people involved in the War did not necessarily view all of those on the opposing side as enemies. Those men and women were able to conduct friendly – if sometimes romantic – relationships with the supposed foes through those letters. Moreover, the letters help to ground and soften the image of prisoners of war since some of it “told of prisoners who washed clothes for fellow inmates, or taught them ballroom dance.” This chapter also reflects the Civil War by competently describing a regularly snubbed but extremely noteworthy part of the War: POW camps. It shows a realistic and grim portrayal of these camps which were as dreadful as the battles and took thousands of soldiers out of the fight. The conditions were so horrid that “some despairing prisoners intentionally crossed the deadline” in order to be shot rather than continue suffering in the camp. The glory and grandeur that is consistently attributed to battles is nowhere to be seen with the camps showing a more faithful approach to the horrors of the