Title:
Robert E. Lee and me [text (large print)] : a Southerner's reckoning with the myth of the lost cause / Ty Seidule.
ISBN:
9781432888848
Personal Author:
Edition:
Large print edition.
Publication Information:
Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2021.
©2020
Physical Description:
533 pages (large print) ; 23 cm
Contents:
My childhood : raised on a White Southern myth -- My hometown : a hidden history of slavery, Jim Crow, and integration -- My adopted hometowns : a hidden history as "Lynchtown" -- My college : the shrine of the lost cause -- My military career : glorifying Confederates in the U.S. Army -- My academic career : glorifying Robert E. Lee at West Point -- My verdict : Robert E. Lee committed treason to preserve slavery -- Epilogue: A Southern soldier confronts the lost cause in the shrine of the South.
Summary:
Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning. In a unique blend of history and reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the Confederacy--that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation and enslavement of Black Americans--and directly challenges the idea of honoring those who labored to preserve that system and committed treason in their failed attempt to achieve it. Through the arc of Seidule's own life, as well as the culture that formed him, he seeks a path to understanding why the facts of the Civil War have remained buried beneath layers of myth and even outright lies--and how they embody a cultural gulf that separates millions of Americans to this day. Part history lecture, part meditation on the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the Confederacy--and provides a surprising interpretation of essential truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and accepting.
Geographic Term:
OCLC Number:
on1259018011
Availability:
Apple Valley - Galaxie~1
Burnsville - Burnhaven~1
Eagan - Wescott~1