Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause - Paperback

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Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
  • Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause - Paperback

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause - Paperback

by Ty Seidule
$19.00
$19.00

Book Overview

"Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron Chernow

In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy--and explores why some of this country's oldest wounds have never healed.

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.
ISBN9781250239280
Author Ty Seidule
PublisherSt. Martin's Griffin
GenreBiography and History
FormatPaperback
PublishedJanuary 2022
LanguageENG- English
Pages304
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography History Nonfiction

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More by Ty Seidule

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause - Paperback

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause - Paperback

By Ty Seidule

About Ty Seidule

Brigadier General TY SEIDULE, U.S. Army (Retired), is Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the army for more than 35 years. He is the author of Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of Lost Cause and served as Vice Chair for the Naming Commission tasked by Congress to rename Department of Defense assets that honor Confederates. He teaches at Hamilton College. CONNOR WILLIAMS was Lead Historian for the United States Congress' Naming Commission. He has taught for Yale University, Middlebury College, the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and has worked as a public historian and consultant on several other major renaming and reconciliation projects.

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