I finish I feel content, like I’ve been awayrnfor a while.” For him, the SCV is importantrnbecanse it “brings people together,rnlike the War did. I sit in a room with arndoctor and pastor and such. . . . We’rernall together for the same reason.”rnJust south of Adanta in Clavton Countv,rnby contrast, the Old South meansrnmoney. This, the fictional territory ofrnMargaret Mitchell’s 1930’s best-seller, isrna mecca for Japanese tourists who comernin droves seeking “Gone With the Window.”rnHere, amidst Tara Auto World,rnTara Baptist Church, Tara Trophies,rnand so on, Horwitz finds entrepreneursrnlike Melly Meadows, a Scarlett O’Hararnimpersonator, and Betty Talmadge.rnMrs. Talmadge, former wife of U.S.rnSenator Herman Talmadge and selfproclaimedrnowner oiboth GWIW plantadons,rnis catering dinners for businessmenrnat “Twelve Oaks” until she can figurernout how to create a theme park fromrnher collechon. (Her meals feature Scarlettrncarrots, Rhett Butler biscuits, andrnabra-Ham Lincoln.)rnA fictive “Old South” may be goodrnbusiness, but the actual historical eventrnof war still engenders powerful, even violent,rncontroversy. In this context Horwitzrndiscusses at length the status of CommanderrnWirz of Andersonville, thernplacement of Arthur Ashe’s statue inrnRichmond, and the Rebel Flag-relatedrnshooting death of Michael Westermanrnin Guthrie, Kentucky. More disturbingrnis Horwitz’s discover}’ that Civil War historvrnhas been completely expunged fromrnthe public school curriculum in Alabamarn— one way to avoid disagreementrnover the heritage of the Old South beingrnto remove the issue altogether from contemplation.rnWhile Horwitz wondersrnwhether “ignorance might prove a blessing,”rnin every classroom he visits he findsrnthe black children sitting on one sidernof die room and the white ones on thernother.rnIn spite of the singularity of Tony Horwitz’srnapproach and the richness of hisrnreporting, Confederates in the Attic is seriouslvrnflawed by its author’s inabilit)’ tornget beyond the issue of slavery as therncause of the war. Thus, while often surprisedrnby what he finds, Horwitz’s essentialrnunderstanding of the big picture remainsrnstubbornly unchanged from hisrnoriginal preconception of it. Mr. Horwitzrnhas an obvious affection for thernSouth, and he does attempt to be fair.rnHis effort at objectivit’, however, is compromisedrnby a troubling problem withrntone. In his descriptions, particidarlyrnwhere his choice of detail is concerned,rnHorwitz now and again conveys a subtierncondescension toward his subject, qviietlyrnbetraying individuals who havernopened their doors to this outsider byrnmaking them look mildly ridiculous. Asrnunreliable as Selma’s Mayor Smithermanrnmay be, his parting words to Horwitzrnare prophetic: “Y’all always do thernsame, come in here smiling and then gornhome and write a dig at us.”rnPerhaps Mr. Horwitz, not being arnSoutherner himself, simply doesn’t knowrnanv better, his sense of etiquette beingrnonly slightly more developed than hisrnunderstanding of Southern regional politics.rnIt was Tony Horwitz, after all, whorn(in the Wall Street Journal) describedrnMichael Hill, president of the League ofrnthe South, as wearing a fie instead of arnhood, and charged that “much of whatrnpasses for ‘antigovernment’ or ‘statesrnrights’ sentiment is actually racism, xenophobia,rnand anti-Semifism, wrapped uprnnow in fashionable anti-Washingtonrnrhetoric.”rnLoxley F. Nichols teaches in the Englishrnand Writing departments of LoyolarnCollege in Baltimore, Maryland,rnand is a former member of the Childrenrnof the Confederacy.rnR E G A R D I N G I M M I G R A T I O N . .rnA publication of The Rockford Institutern232 pp., paper, $14.95 List Price (plus $2.50 for shipping & handling)rn44 Fi or a decade, writers in Chronicles have beenrngrappling with this elemental and nation-breaking forcernin their brilliant, often literary, sometimes histrionic,rninvariably idiosyncratic but undeniably diverse way. The presence inrnthis volume of California’s Governor Pete Wilson, easily reelected sincernhis essay ‘Citizenship and Immigration’ first appeared in Chronicles^rnNovember 1993 issue and now widely mentioned as the possiblerncatalyst of the immigration issue in presidential politics, is only onernreason Chronicles^ editors can fairly say: you read it here first”rn—Peter BrimelowrnTo order by credit card, call: 1 – 8 0 0 – 3 9 7 – 8 1 6 0rnOr send check or money order in the amount of $17.45 ($14.95+$2.50 shipping & handling) tornChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mt. Morris, XL 61054rn*For immediate service, please list on payment or mention when ordering SOURCE CODE:rnA9509, and ITEM CODE: MGRT.rnSEPTEMBER 1998/35rnrnrn