AUSA’s Thought Leaders livestream series—an extension of our Thought Leaders podcast—will temporarily take the place of the General Bernard W. Rogers Strategic Issues Forum and General Lyman L. Lemnitzer Lecture Series.
With a tight focus on senior military leaders and contemporary military authors, Thought Leaders seeks to educate the public on critical issues affecting land forces and strategy. Please join us on Thursday, 4 February 2021 at 1000 to hear a presentation by Ty Seidule author of Robert E Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.
Speaker
- Ty Seidule
Ty Seidule is Professor Emeritus of History at West Point where he taught for two decades. He served in the U.S. Army for thirty-six years, retiring as a brigadier general in 2020. He is the Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College as well as a New America Fellow. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history including the award-winning West Point History of the Civil War. Ty graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a PhD from the Ohio State University.
Agenda
- Thursday, 4 February 2021
1000–1100
About the Book
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.
Reviews
“A beautiful, often searing meditation on race, history, and the American narrative. Evocative and provocative, Robert E. Lee and Me is honest, wry, and utterly engaging.”
— Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The British are Coming
“A timely, powerful, compelling – and courageous – book. In Robert E. Lee and Me, Brigadier General Ty Seidule takes readers on a fascinating intellectual journey...This is a book of enormous importance and tremendous insight, a book that only a true southerner – and a true historian – could have written.”
— General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of Coalition Forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan and former Director of the CIA
“In this profoundly moving memoir distinguished by moral courage and intellectual integrity, Ty Seidule chronicles his agonizing journey of discovery…Everyone interested in the Civil War and its continuing importance in American culture should read this unflinchingly honest book.”
— Professor James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom
“General Ty Seidule has written a book for our times, one every American should read. By seamlessly weaving his impressive, and fascinating, autobiographical story into a superb rendering of the pernicious myths surrounding Robert E. Lee and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, he has opened a window into one of the darker elements of our present-day culture, and one that helps explain what has happened in our recent political life as well...a tour de force.”
— Charles B. Dew, Ephraim Williams Professor of American History at Williams College
“Searingly passionate, mercilessly honest, Robert E. Lee and Me is one of the most deeply felt books you are likely to encounter. Not only is it a soldier’s assessment of a military legend, it is an American’s report on the state of the Union...a must read for anyone who has ever thought about the meaning of duty, honor, country.”
— Randy Roberts, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Blood Brothers
“This book is a must read. With courage, grace, and humility, Seidule invites us to reexamine our past and challenges us by asking: ‘as a nation, how can we know where are going if we don’t know where we have been?’ This book speaks truth to power and truth in love. Written by a true patriot who clearly loves his country and wants the best for her, Robert E. Lee and Me leads us to a better place as a nation and reminds us all of our founding motto E Pluribus Unum - out of many, one.”
— Mitch Landrieu, bestselling author of In The Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History
"A son of the South, a professional soldier, and an accomplished historian, Ty Seidule has written a book that is as timely as it is profound. Nominally centered on dismantling the myths surrounding the Confederacy's most famous field commander, Robert E. Lee and Me does much more, offering a searingly honest reflection on slavery, race, and the imperative of honesty in addressing America's past.”
— Professor Andrew Bacevich, bestselling author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
"Soldier and historian Ty Seidule's memoir courageously counters the myths, half-truths, and outright falsehoods about the Confederacy that our institutions perpetuate to this day. It proves both essential and riveting reading."
— John H. Morrow, Jr., Pritzker Prize-winning author and Franklin Professor of History, University of Georgia
“Ty Seidule has written an extraordinary tale of a great change, but unlike most, his is one of intellectual, cultural, and moral transformation....a powerful story of a southern man who confronted the myths of his youth and concluded that there is no room in the United States Army or American society for Lost Cause mythology.”
— Joseph Glatthaar, author of General Lee’s Army and Stephenson Distinguished Professor of History at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
“Ty Seidule brilliantly and brutally deconstructs [the Lost Cause myth]…an extraordinary book that, by chronicling our darkest American moments, offers hope that we might one day see greater light.”
– Los Angeles Review of Books
“Seidule openly confronts his own indifference to racism, and this absorbing book will be of value to anyone interested in how history informs our present.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
“Ruminative and carefully researched....a valiant and well supported effort to bring essential facts to light. This heartfelt history has a worthy message.”
– Publishers Weekly