This book is a history of Lee, the Lost Cause, and one White Southern Historian/Soldier’s reckoning with the legacy of White supremacy on his life and the life of America. Lee and Me, Ty Seidule gives an unvarnished, no holds bar account of how he grew up learning about the Lost Cause Myth and venerating the Confederate general Robert E. All of this happened to West Point Professor Emeritus of History Ty Seidule. Imagine believing a narrative of history that taught you all the wrong things about one of the most consequential wars in your nation’s history. Imagine finding out everything you learned growing up was a lie, that the historical figure that you revered as a god and even ranked them higher than Jesus was actually a traitor to his country. 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. Part history lecture, part meditation on the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. 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. 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.

From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S.

Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy-and explores why some of this country’s oldest wounds have never healed. In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. 'Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his fierce sense of moral urgency.' -Ron Chernow

Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule