Customer Reviews

Tara Revisited: Women, War, & the Plantation Legend

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Tara Revisited is an only marginally convincing portrait of the "real" southern woman. Clinton successfully debunks the myth of the Old South, yet fails to put in its place a convincing and thorough discussion of the real lives of these women.

Clinton, in refuting the popular myth of the "southern belle," does put up her own model for the southern lady. But this model depends little on how these women actually lived and what they really though; rather she consistently insists on painting women in an overly noble and (still) idealized way.

If you are looking for a good history and examination of women during the American Civil War, try "Mothers of Invention" by Drew Gilpin Faust. It is immensely more satisfying than Clinton's depiction.

I purchased this book at the Gettysburg NPS bookstore and was very anxious to begin reading it...however after only a few pages the author's bias and dislike of all things southern was glaring obvious to me. I am certainly not looking to have the past whitewashed, but I feel like the title is very misleading. After 97 pages of reading, I have gathered very little information about women and planation life.... The only recommendation I can give this book is that it is peppered with some great photographs.

Southerners carry a chip on their shoulder when it comes to the Lost Cause, so any book which attempts to set the record straight is an exercise in masochism, certain to be fired upon by those weened on Plantation Mythology. Clinton investigates the development of the "Tara Mystique", that belief that plantation life consisted of happy slaves working for the love of the masters and mistresses. She both dispels this legend and defends the character of Southern womanhood during the Civil War and afterwards. Those who want their ancestors to be demigods will hate this book. Those who want to demonize Southern forebears will find it too light. Those who are willing to confront history as a record made by human beings will enjoy this book and ask for more.

I picked up this book and a bookstore in Georgia, thinking it to be a historical book about the South. I was apalled by her insensitivity to the Southern plantation owner. Though there were cruel plantation owners, there were also the genuinly kind people, who cared for the slaves. My ancestors owned slaves, but the majority of them stayed with our family after the war. I wish that the author would pay more attention to the what the southerners had to go through after the war, with homes burned, and families starved, instead of calling it all "southern myth" which has be made into movies and books and over publicized with Scarlett O'Hara and Mammy to stir the hearts of America's people. For the "southern myth" is no myth at all; it is the true story of thousands of Americans who fought for what they believed in their hearts as right, the protection of their values and way of life.

As a lover and avid reader of history I was VERY disappointed in this book. I found Ms. Clintons opinions and interpretations of the south and southern plantation era one sided, selective, and laced with her own prejudices. Yes, it was a horrible, horrible time for the blacks, whites and our country. Slavery will always be Americas greatest shame, a flaw that most of us struggle to understand and rectify in our human frailty each day, but if Ms. Clinton is to be believed, there was but a handful of humane, caring "white" people residing in the south during this time! Which is Not true! If Ms. Clinton considers herself a true historian (which I do not) and writer of history I feel it is her duty to tell All sides honestly, with equal amounts of pros and cons, and without her own bias slants. To my fellow history buffs I can not reccoment this book and I can honestly say that I will never read another of Ms. Clintons books in the future.