This was such an eye-opening read about the lost cause generation. This book is a personal narrative wrapped in an incredibly important history lesson: Robert E. Lee was a traitor who killed his fellow Americans.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.

I both appreciate and admire this author for approaching this very important subject matter! I have read many things about the Civil War era and the greatness of Robert E. Lee and I found this approach to be not only new but unique as well. The research and composition were excellently combined and I enjoyed, very much, this reading experience! Thank you for the opportunity in allowing me to read it!

This was such a wonderful read, especially as someone raised in the South and as someone related to General Robert E. Lee. Stories passed down to us have always been stories of pride of the Confederacy and for so many years, I bought into it. It wasn't until I really thought about it that I realized how backwards my thinking was and this books shows that perfectly and makes the strong case against idolizing a general who, whether he wanted to or not, fought for the enslavement of other people based on their skin color. Eye-opening.

Siedule's book is interesting; it details a life of transition, from the acceptance of Confederate "Lost Cause" beliefs to a recognition of their faults and implications. His book gives a personal account, something that I think people who are attuned to learning history through stories will latch on to more than any esoteric academic work. While the book more be more popular in that first sense, it is unclear who the audience is here. I'm not sure for whom Seidule is writing. Those who understand the Lost Cause as a myth and see the faulty reasoning of supporting Confederate monuments may be, on the surface, his key audience, but this would not provide them with any new information. It may feed their confirmation bias, but will show them instances of what they already know. Certainly, no one who supports the Lost Cause or sees the cover will pick the book up, as they will reject it a priori.

Compounding this problem is that I was hoping for a more detailed explanation of the Lost Cause narrative, tracing how it pops up throughout southern culture in the latter twentieth century. Unfortunately, Seidule focuses on his own experiences and his own personal narrative. It is interesting as a case study in how someone's views and beliefs can change, but I think the book would be bolstered by some examples of historiography and cultural studies scholarship that would show the continued presence of this thinking into the last few decades of American history.

I think that Seidule's story (and let me be clear, it is an interesting story, and one worth telling to an audience) is more about him than the Lost Cause narrative itself. As a West Point historian, it seems he is trying to square the fact of Robert E. Lee as a general (and prior to the Confederacy, a US general) with the institution of the US Army. What I mean is that many see Lee as a military hero; many Lost Cause, Confederate flag supporters would argue this point. For Seidule, supporting Lee would mean supporting Lee's cause to fight: treason in the name of right to hold and own slaves. He makes it very clear: Lee was a traitor that killed other Americans in the name of leaving the country.

His message is clear and important, I am just afraid that such a personal story will not reach the right people. Hopefully, though, as many successful books do, it will start a larger conversation.

Imagine finding out everything you learned growing up was a lie, that the historical figure that you revered as a god and even ranked them higher than Jesus was actually a traitor to his country. Imagine believing a narrative of history that taught you all the wrong things about one of the most consequential wars in your nation’s history. All of this happened to West Point Professor Emeritus of History Ty Seidule. In Robert E. Lee and Me, Ty Seidule gives an unvarnished, no holds bar account of how he grew up learning about the Lost Cause Myth and venerating the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. This book is a history of Lee, the Lost Cause, and one White Southern Historian/Soldier’s reckoning with the legacy of White supremacy on his life and the life of America.

Most of Ty Seidule’s life, from cradle to adulthood, revolved around honoring and revering Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy. Seidule developed a special attachment to Lee because they shared the same birthday. Seidule’s favorite childhood book taught him to revere Lee as a hero because he was against slavery even though in reality the pro-slavery Lee was actually fighting on the side of a confederation of states who were hoping to create a slave republic. In his book, Seidule takes the reader on a journey from his hometown in Alexandria, VA, to his adopted hometown of Monroe, GA, to his college days at Washington and Lee University, to his army days at Fort Bragg, and finally to his teaching days at West Point. In each location or institution, Seidule uncovers his and the nation’s racist past that promoted the Lost Cause and hid horrible tragedies inflicted on Black people.

Seidule weaves in Lee’s biography as he tell his own story. In his chapter on Washington and Lee University, he tells of Lee’s second act after the Civil War as president of the university, but what’s actually interesting is the story of how parts of the university (specifically Lee Chapel) later became a shrine to Lee and the Confederacy. Seidule shows in vivid detail how some of the origins of the Lost Cause mythology came out of that chapel. When Seidule covers his own army days he writes that many military posts in the South are named after other traitorous Confederate soldiers (Fort Bragg, Benning, and Gordon to name a few). He is especially effective in this chapter when he uses the Confederates own words against them especially when they dealt with their views on slavery and Black people. Seidule does not hold back throughout the book, he shows the hypocrisy of the Army who honors White supremacists by naming forts after them. But it doesn’t stop with the forts. As towns and cities erected Confederate statues and monuments across the country, the Army also embraced symbols of the Confederacy during notable debates on integration in the 20th Century, Seidule provides thorough historical evidence to prove his points.

His book ends by first covering West Point’s fascination with the Confederacy, which is another interesting story because the school was initially anti-Confederate during and immediately after the Civil War. Seidule provides superb historical analysis to explain why hatred of the Confederacy turn into reverence in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Second, Seidule concludes with a forceful reckoning with his former hero Robert E. Lee. He uses history and Lee’s own words to take down each of the stubborn Lost Cause Myths we have about Lee. One of those myths was that Lee “was born to make” the decision to join the Confederacy, he was not, he chose to do so.

Seidule has given readers a powerful book that will challenge and hopefully encourage them to uncover the racist pasts of their own upbring. It will also challenge the Lost Cause myths we all were raised up on in regards to the Civil War and it will help to solidify the fact that Robert E. Lee was not a hero but a traitor to the United States. Robert E. Lee was not born to become a Confederate he was born to be a Union man. Ty Seidule, this Southern soldier and scholar who once revered Lee and the Confederacy but later learned the true history was born to write this book. He has done his nation a great service in writing this important work of nonfiction.

I recently had the opportunity to review an ARC of a new book entitled "Robert E Lee and Me" by a distinguished serving officer in the United States Armed Forces named Ty Seidule. I have a mixed reaction. The book is an easy and well written read, but comes across as something of a diatribe more than anything else. The author, born and raised in the South, the son of a distinguished teacher, takes this background as its foundation. Much of it is devoted to a rather unbalanced assault on Robert E. Lee. Now let me first confess that, like the author in his formative years, I have the greatest admiration for the character and accomplishments of Lee. That said, I am far from unaware of his shortcomings as well. Perhaps the greatest value of the text is in its examination of what might best be identified as the oft used and seldom explained phrase "systemic racism," a very popular phrase often thrown about as a charge against modern American culture. After reading the book, I am quite prepared to concede the existence of such a widespread cultural phenomena from the period of Reconstruction until the late 1960's, and this book does a good job of making that case. Nonetheless, while I concede that racism in its so called "White Supremacy" phase was a powerful and very real force during those years, I am left scratching my head at the notion of it being any thing more than a pernicious legacy of that period at this point in time. This is, of course, not to say that racism doesn't now exist here, but my own view is that conjuring racism to fight racism is a dangerous thing indeed (and more often than not counterproductive). Still, despite my opinion that the author is often a bit over the top in his vilification of Lee and his (the author's) single minded focus on slavery as a driving force in both Lee's life and the Confederacy, I find much food for thought here, and I would recommend this book for anyone interested in getting a perspective very far from that which so many of us grew up with.

As a long time student of the Civil War this book proved to be an amazing read. It opened my eyes and gave me a better understanding of the "Lost Cause" generation. Having grown up in the north I could never understand why those south of the Mason Dixon line could not perceive that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. It always seemed obvious to me that if you removed that from the equation all other reasons would disappear. The author's credentials and writing ability helped understand how this misconception could have been achieved. His research is impeccable and his prose made this a book I could not put down.. All future students of the Civil War owe him a debt of thanks for his excellent development and reporting on a very controversial subject.