Confederates in the Attic Interview

[Justin M.]

I just completed work on a documentary film about Civil War reenacting. I have posted about it on this site a few times. The film is called When to Die. Here is a link to the trailer for the film:

This post is to gather thoughtful questions from the Civil War reenacting community for an interview that I am preparing to do with the author of Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horwitz.

I think this book is an entertaining read and that it gives a snapshot view into the hobby. But I also know that there are a lot of people within the hobby that believe this book to be extremely insulting and there are many people in the hobby who are critical of the author's editorial choices.

Does anyone have a question for Tony Horwitz? I want this interview to address some of the lingering questions that people within the hobby might have for him.

Possible topics:
- Why he wrote the book in the first place
- How he narrowed down his subjects for the book.
- Any regrets about the process or the final product

 

[KeyserSoze]

I met Tony Horowitz years ago when he once addressed the Kansas City Civil War Roundtable. Interesting gentleman.

 

[Craig L Barry]

The book came out in 1998. Eighteen years is a long time in the life cycle of a hobby. It is a bit of a different world now. I am not sure any questions we might have for the author now would be especially relevant to the editorial decisions he made that long ago. It is pretty obvious what he was aiming to do back then and it met his goals in that he made a good bit of money off the controversy. I think that is what he was trying to do. It was written more or less for "entertainment" rather than to provide any particular insight.

I am not interested in that kind of work, in general. However, most of us have either read his book or are familiar with it which is more than can be said of anything I've written. They used to call what Horwitz accomplished "laughing all the way to the bank."

 

[Phiip McBride]

Well said, Craig.

 

[Michael W.]

I agree that 18 years ago, the world was a very different place. With the times we now live in, and the adverse hatred for anything "Confederate" by a very uneducated society, it would be extremely interesting to go back and see if the views by those featured in Mr. Horowitz's book have been altered in any way.

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

I am familiar with "Confederates In the Attic" though I have not read it.......nor will I read it, based on my familiarity and comments (throughout the years) of other people......As far as I am concerned, including him in your movie would do a dis-service to your intent of accurately portraying reenactors in a serious light and would compromise the integrity of your film. If you want reenactors and Civil War history to be laughed at, then, by all means, include him.
Just my "two-cents"