Confederates in the Attic is an informal study of the lingering feelings toward the Civil War in the South. Tony Horwitz, a journalist who has worked in war zones around the world, decides to take a long trip to investigate the obsession that many, including himself, have with the Civil War. Throughout the South, he meets many people of various backgrounds: Shelby Foote, the famous historian and novelist; a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in North Carolina, who confesses that he gets up in the middle of the night and leaves his bed to spend more time reading Civil War books; a young African-American man who killed a young white man who displayed a Confederate flag decal on his truck; and Robert Lee Hodge, the fascinating, humorous man who also appears on the cover of the book.

Horwitz covers a lot of territory in this book, dealing with cultural, historical, political, and somewhat philosophical topics. In fact, this is the main reason why Confederates in the Attic is so difficult to review. After I finished reading the book, there was so much to think about and reflect on that it was difficult to organize it inside my head, and I’m not sure how long it will take me to finish thinking over this. I get the feeling that Horwitz was also overwhelmed to some extent by what he encountered.

In conclusion, Confederates in the Attic is an excellent work that attempts to survey and describe Civil War obsession in the South. In my opinion, although Horwitz drew few major conclusions from his travels, he did succeed in illustrating many examples of this obsession that the reader can study. That is what makes this book great.