He encounters this fascination with the war throughout the South, and as his book shows, it colors how the South views the North, blacks, and perhaps worst of all, it colors how the rest of the country views the South. As the South continues to cling to their Confederacy, it adds to misunderstandings, stereotypes, and unflattering assessments of the people that make up the South. Many of Horwitz's descriptions sound as if they could be stereotypes, (such as "Tony Cool"), and another writer notes, "And, like it or not, many Americans accept that the trailer-park-trash types are usually...

It is an extremely unfortunate stereotype, but it exists" (Begone). By re-creating the Civil War and the South's devastating loss, southerners are simply perpetuating the worst of their society, and these authors all agree on that point.
References

Begone, Jonah. "Advancing the Southern Cause." WesClark.com. 2006. 12 Aug. 2006. http://www.wesclark.com/jw/southern_cause.html

Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. New York: Pantheon, 1998.

Rider, Shawn. "Coping Through History: Tony Horwitz's 'Confederates in the Attic,' History, and Reconciliation." Personal Web Page. 1999. 12 Aug. 2006. http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/horwitz.htm