Robert E. Lee and Me

I picked this book up while vacationing on Cape Cod and couldn’t put it down. The author, a historian who taught at West Point, describes how he was imbued with the myth that Southerners, especially Robert E. Lee, acted with noble intentions during (and after) the American Civil War.

Seidule grew up in various Southern towns and eventually went to college at Washington and Lee University, a school where General Lee served as President following the war.

With a historian’s eye, Seidule takes apart this lie piece by piece in a lively, readable narrative. His conclusion is that Lee and… show more.

Across the South, major statues of Confederate leaders are being removed from prominent pedestals, while schools, military bases, streets, and other memorials named for Confederates are being renamed. No effort is more astonishing than ending the hero worship of Robert E. Lee, the West Point graduate who chose to fight for his home state of Virginia in the Civil War, and led the South to defeat.

In this deeply researched and personal history of Lee and his own reckoning of Lee’s betrayal of the United States, West Point historian and retired Army general Ty Seidule reveals how he, a son… show more.