Confederates In The Attic: Dispatches From The Unfinished Civil War

In many ways, Confederates in the Attic is an ethnography, or a study of a specific people, and Horwitz is trying to discover “the South.” What are characteristics that seem to unite Southern people? How do they view themselves and how do they feel about the perception that non-Southerners have of them?

While visiting Fort Sumter, Horwitz, quoting Henry James, refers to it as the “consecrated object” (46).How does this quote reflect the way in which many white Southerners view Civil War battle sites and memorials? How does this tend to be different from the African-American citizens of the South?

In Chapter 3, Horowitz has a conversation with a man name Manning Williams, who says, “A civil war is an internal revolt. But this was a war between two independent nations, one of which was exercising its constitutional right to secede” (68). Why do many of the people Horwitz meets seem to not only view the South as a geographical location but also as a separate nation from the North?

The idea that the South and Southerners have been treated unfairly by the government of the United States is a common feeling among many of the people interviewed by Horwitz. Why do they think this? What evidence do they use to support their claims?

Race and race relations form a backdrop to Horwitz’s narrative. How do the notions of “history and heritage” differ between white and black Southerners? 

In Chapter 7, Horwitz visits with noted Civil War historian Shelby Foote. At one point Foote states that the “Civil War represents the great trauma of our [America’s] adolescence. It’s the sort of experience we never forget” (146). What do you think Foote means by “the great trauma of our adolescence”? How is this statement reflected throughout the book?

Robert E. Lee urged Southerners to accept defeat and serve the reunited nation (269). He is quoted as saying, “True patriotism sometimes requires of me to act contrary at one period to that which it does at another…the motive that impels them—the desire to do the right thing—is precisely the same” (269). How is this reflected in the attitude of modern-day white Southerners, or does it seem that many have chosen to continue the war in their own, personal ways?

In Chapter 11, Robert Hodge says, “I think of myself as a liberal Confederate […] I want the history preserved, and I think the Confederacy’s a great story about men who did incredible things. But I don’t subscribe to a lot of the politics that comes with it” (246). How does Hodge’s view of Southern “heritage” differ from that of other people in the book?