Confederates in the Attic
...le the reenactors seem to be reenacting more for fun, and to feed their desire for everything that is related to the Civil War. The extents that those Southerners went through were unbelievable: sleeping in swamps and even imitating the bloated look of a corpse like Robert Lee Hodge did. These descriptions make the reader laugh, which is important in a book with such a serious subject. This book would have been much more difficult to read if it were not for the funny quotes and events. However sometimes, the funny bits are only funny because they are so sad. The book eventually got to its inescapable dramatic core by including controversial events such as a racially motivated murder, the Confederate flag controversy, and a “children of the confederacy” meeting. Horwitz does a great job bringing these real characters to life, even if they are depressing. The second part of the story, containing those characters filled with fear and hatred, can get quite disturbing. Overriding their racial prejudices, and maybe intertwining with them, is the overwhelming sense of nostalgia and pride that fill these Southern characters. They cannot let go of the Civil War, and they probably never will. It consumes most of their lives, as well as the same problems from that time period do. Until they can let go of...