471A3--Week 10 Questions/Comments--Thursday

I was really upset with how the Robinson house was handled. It seemed like the house was neglected, until someone burned it down. From there it was dismantle everything except the chimney, and then the chimney until nothing was left. I think that an important piece of history was lost and that is sad. –Kayle P. From a historical context/memory standpoint I was struck by two encounters that Horwitz had. One of those encounters was with, Daijiro, a Japanese tour guide who was escourting a group in Georgia. In response to Horwitz's inquiring about the Japanese fascination with Gone With the Wind Daijiro stated, "You must understand the times. In the 1930s we saw American movies, then during the war we didn't.  These movies came back after the war and Gone With the Wind was the most popular.  I think it gave people hope to see this woman fighting so hard to build her land back." (p. 300) I never knew about the Japanese adjuration for the film. It is amazing how an image that we see as symbolic of elite white racial prejudice can be seen by someone else as a legitimate heroic image. Memory and context, amazing. - Jason The other entry that got my attention was the comments made by Peggy Root. "You can't imagine what Gone With the Wind meant to my generation. Poverty. Ours I mean.  When I was growing up in Arkansas...Life was that bare.  Then this book comes out about a rich South we never knew.  It was escapism, I guess." (p. 306) Again the movie and its characters as inspirational to one subset of people and negatively symbolic to others. - Jason I thought it was fascinating about the camp in Andersonville. I had never anything like that before reading this book. I was especially struck by the mindset of the people that lived in the town, with rangers being scared to share too much and the woman at the bed and breakfast talking about her views changing after spending so much time in the town. Also, when Horwitz talked about the museum display, I thought it was interesting that it still caused tension even though he mentioned the display had been "soften". It is still amazing to me that people still have/had these ideas.–Kayle P I was surprised to find out how long it took Congress to commemorate the battlefield at Manassas. Then I was even more surprised to find out that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had been able to segment off piece of the battlefield and created Confederate Park. I have been to Manassas Battlefield several times so when I started reading about the Henry house I found it was interesting because I was able to put images to what I was reading. When you visit the house you do see bullet holes inside, and you also see the little cemetery out front where the family was buried. When I have seen it in the past, I did not really think much of it, but now I look forward to being able to see it again knowing more about it. – Ana Y. I thought it was interesting when Horwitz went to Rose Sander’s classroom. The reactions of the students were not as surprising to me as some of the other stories. “Those crackers did wrong! Why honor them?” (368) He said it had offered him a glimpse of what angry young blacks in Alabama learned about the civil war. Then he briefly mentioned the all white home-schoolers he had seen and all that they knew about slavery and succession, and then he questioned what lied in between both extremes. I too am a little curious about that. In Alabama, there must be an in between, right? – Ana Y. Like Ana, I found Horowitz's experience sitting in on Rose Sander's class interesting. I attended a private Catholic school up until college, so I feel like I had a slightly similar experience in learning about the civil war as the white home-schoolers. All through grade school and high school my classes were practically all white, and looking back on it now, I think it definitely affected how the civil war was taught. I think the absence of diversity allowed my teachers to skip over the unsavory (i.e. SLAVERY) aspects of the civil war because they felt like an audience of upper-middle class white kids would notice. Its not like they excluded slavery or anything, but there definitely wasn't any outrage over glossing through it. -Cameron F.

I went to school in southeastern Virginia and I share a similar view as Cameron. You learn that slavery happened and the Harriet Tubman was a leader in the Underground Railroad. -Hannah

I agree with Hannah, it's sad what gets missed because of the different areas you grow up in..but that is what I learned as well...looking back I think it's sad that I never really got a good education on the Civil War until college, it is an important aspect of our culture that needs to be explained further than a week lecture where most of it is just skimmed over..-Meg O

I really liked how Horowitz finished up his book with mentioning that his Australian wife discovered that she had a connection to someone who fought for the union in the civil war. I think it says alot about how far-reaching the war was and how it can connect to so many people. Its a funny little anecdote that emphasizes his message that the civil war is in every American (or Australians) attic... -Cameron F. I was quite disappointed with the chapter in "Confederates In the Attic" about the last widow of the Confederacy. Alberta seemed to me to be the least confederate women depicted in the entirety of the book. Her marriage to William was basically about necessity and a little creepy except for the necessity that led to it. It was not a surprise to me that no one mentions her or makes a big deal out of it because it seemed that the confederacy was not even a part of their marriage aside from his military veterans benefit check. --Matt A.

I think the mention of Alberta is really important, because it reinforces the fact that the people who lived through the war, for the most part, were normal people who wanted to live their lives. She didn't survive the war because she wasn't born yet, but she did deal with the after effects. I think she actually represents a very moderate voice that we don't see throughout a lot of the book. - Carly B.

The peace Jubilee at Henry Hill seemed to me to be a very remarkable and unique commemoration and experience. I agree with quotes like that of the Manassas Journal on page 149 about the incredible nature of seeing soldiers fifty years after battling, embracing each other on the same hill. That commemoration, to me, deserves a monument and a place in our history books just as much as the battle should not only because of its unique place in history as a rare occasion, but also because it is a lesson on how to recreate friendship after war. --Matt A. I enjoyed reading Confederates in the Attic. I felt Horwitz's entire book was interesting filled with great stories and interesting quotes, however, my favorite quote was in Georgia: Gone with the Wind: "Reaching Atlanta was far easier now than in Sherman's day. Feuled by Georgia's 97-cents-a-gallon gas and unenforced speed limits, I bombed down an interstate that spilled straight into Peachtree Street, the city's main drag. Unlike Sherman, I approached Atlanta with trepidation." (283) Horwitz presents a great sense of humor throughout the book and this quote demonstrates that notion. I believe the blending of modernity with Civil War memory adds a new entertainment dimension to the subject of the Civil War, which makes it more presentable to people less enthused about something that happened 150 years ago. -- Donald P. Did anyone else find it completely shocking that a woman who kind of looks like Vivien Leigh still goes around and acts like Scarlett O’Hara for tour groups? For Japanese tour groups no less? Kind of makes me wonder what the world thinks of the Civil War. She travels the world portraying a character from a movie based on a book based loosely on history. Dear god. Nevermind, I don’t want to know what people think. Horwitz thinks it ironic that Montgomery’s welcome sign speaks of both a Civil Rights memorial and a Confederate capitol. I think that’s how we view our history, though. It’s at least how we teach it. The Civil Rights Movement did not begin in the 1960s; it began when the South seceded from the Union. Is that correct? No, but that’s what our history books and our standards imply. On that note, I’m not surprised that students have little to no real knowledge or depth of knowledge about the Civil War. I hope we talk about that in class, because I have FAR too much to say on it for just a single wiki post. -- Brooke SO many valid points with your post Brooke. I think one of the more interesting points is how the rest of the world views the American Civil War. I honestly can't imagine the general public of the world really caring too much about the Civil War unless they are historians or military buffs. I've had a few friends from different countries and I asked about what they would study. They cover most of the same basics as America does, but history and social studies is out more on the back burner and focused more on their own countries.-- George H I was surprised to read that when Horowitz sat in on a high school class in Alabama, the Civil War wasn't even part of the curriculum. Alabama along with some other states would only cover US History from 1877 and up because officials say its more relevant to the time period. I find that asinine not to teach such a major event in our nation's history. The Civil War has so many means that deserved to be taught and future generations will have no idea. It kinda reminds me of how Germany refuses to acknowledge WW2 because it makes the average German citizen look bad.-- George H I, too, was a bit startled by the treatment of the Robinson house as well as how utterly hypocritical and just plain annoying the NPS’s use of the Henry House is. I can’t believe that something like that was allowed to happen. Were there NO historic pres majors at that time? We get all up in arms about tearing down a building on campus that is ugly to begin with, completely inefficient, and just plain spooky, but no one says anything about the NPS basically being racist? -- Brooke I was struck by the involvement of both the SCV's and the UDC's with Manassas. I know that today, the Civil War Trust aids a lot in securing and helping the NPS lobby to acquire battlefields (or the CWT acquires it itself), but I guess I found it strange that groups in favor of one side in particular (i.e., the Confederacy), were allowed to be involved and even section off their own sections of national battlefields. Is that still something that goes on today? -Carly W.

After I finished reading Confederates in the Attic, I asked myself the question did Horwitz always present an objective viewpoint? Did it matter if he did or not? And, where do civil rights, such as freedom of speech clash with remembrance of the Civil War? How does Horwitz treat this subject? -- Donald Phelps

I enjoyed this book, and I think it raises good things for us to think about. How would this book look if it were to take place in the north? Or about a different conflict/era? - Carly B I have to agree with Brooke about the connection and how the Civil Rights Movement and the Civil War are always linked. I'm in a Museum Studies class right now, where we discuss both museum education as well as what school systems are learning about today. Believe it or not, I was surprised to learn, one of the local school systems is working on a teaching manual for social studies courses in elementary schools that actually teaches the Civil Rights Movement in the context of this area, and guess where the timeline begins--the Civil War. Although not necessarily correct (as Brooke points out) I think it has a lot to do with the common perception of the Civil War being, ultimately, the fight to end slavery. Any thoughts? --Carly W.

In Shackel, he talked about Manassas and the struggle to make it a national battlefield. It's weird that Congressmen refused to fund the preservation of the battlefield because it was a battle the North lost. Why does it matter when the North won the war in the end? 50 years later and they still refuse to acknowledge either the South won a few things or it has something to do with Manassas marking the first real battle. You would think Antietam would be the first battlefield to be preserved because it marked one of the most tragic and deadliest battles. The soldiers that died should have been recognized earlier. - Hannah

I thought it was really interesting to see the struggle the south went through to get Manassas recognized by the federal government. I guess this is something that I took for granted and just assumed that all of the battlefields became National Park property...it's strange that Manassas was the place Union soldiers wanted to create their memorial but that the federal government didn't want to recognize the battlefield, Confederate win or not, that seems like a huge slap in the face not only to those Union soldiers but most obviously to those Confederates. -Meg O