Title: Robert E. Lee and Me
Author: Ty Seidule
Narrated by: Ty Seidule
Publisher: Macmillan
Audio
Length:
Approximately 10 hours and 45 minutes
Source: Checked out with Libby through the Kewaunee Public Library. Thank-you!
What is the last book that was recommended to
you? Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule
was recommended to me by one of my favorite high school teachers, Mrs.
Parkison. She was a great history and
health teacher!
Ty Seidule is a Professor Emeritus of History at West
Point. He served 2/3 of life in Army. He grew up in Virginia revering Robert E.
Lee. He attended Washington & Lee
University and then was in the military.
As he grew older and served in the military himself, he had a reckoning
with the legacy of Robert E. Lee, the Civil War, and the lost cause myth. He realized that Lee had signed an oath to
the United States just days before he turned against his own country and fought
against it. Lee profited from slavery,
and he had members of his own family that went against him when he became a
traitor and resigned from the United States military. His actions was directly responsible the
deaths of many American citizens. After
the Civil War, the lost cause myth started. “The Lost Cause became a movement, an ideology,
a myth, even a civil religion that would unite first the white south and
eventually the nation around the meaning of the Civil War.”
Siedule also states that history is dangerous. When you go against people’s long-standing
views, such as the lost cause myth, they can react very angrily and sometimes
violently. It’s always interesting to me
that people stick so firmly to views that were passed down to them, even when
they don’t match actual historical accounts from the time period.
This book was part memoir and part a history
lesson. It was a very interesting
audiobook to listen to and it made me wish I had him for an instructor. I liked that he narrated the book
himself.
The Audiobook has a great interview with the author at
the end.
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