Tony Horwitz recently passed away. There are few non-fiction books that I've enjoyed more than CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC, especially the sections on the re-enactors. Horwitz takes another pass at the South with his last book SPYING ON THE SOUTH.

One of his heroes was Frederick Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City and influenced multiple city parks into the modern age as his sons continued his work. Olmsted idea was more social intercourse between the various classes and diverse races. During the last few pages Horwitz visits Central Park to see how successful Olmsted was.

But that's not what the book is about. Prior to his work designing city parks, Olmsted was a drifter. He never went to college, although he was there soaking up books as his brother was in pre-med at Harward. Anyway he got a job working for the New York Times and another New York paper interacting with Southerners and sending back occasional dispatches. Horwitz tries to follow Olmsted's route. He actually went there twice between 1854-1856.

The first anecdote is about Horwitz's experience on a tow boat, pushing coal barges down the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers. A tow boat can push as many as nine or more barges. This is dangerous, life-threatening work, but the workers Horwitz talked to were willing to risk black lung or whatever for a well-paying job. It's always about the job.

From there Horwitz takes a steam boat down the Mississippi, one of the most restful parts of his whole experience. They stop at Baton Rouge and learn a little about demagogue Huey Long, who might have run for president and possibly won if he hadn't been assassinated. The rest of Horwitz's tour through Louisiana is about the food, Cajuns and something called the Mud Fest. This is a huge mud puddle on land that used to be part of a plantation where grown men risk expensive machinery to play in the mud more-or-less. They charge into the mud puddle in trucks with oversized tires and most often get stuck or blow an engine. Horwitz's partner was from Australia and even he thought this was insane. He also complained constantly about the high-cholesterol food once they left New Orleans. Ironically, when he left Horwitz's tour, this foodie, had to have quintuple bypass surgery.

Once they get into Texas Horwitz hits all the high spots, like the Alamo. Surprisingly Horwitz seems to view Santa Ana as being in the right. Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie, Colonel Travis and the boys are viewed as land grabbers. Slavery was banned in Mexico but immigrants brought slavery with them and refused to give it up. This whole fracas was more of a manifest destiny thing than settlers being abused by the big bad dictator.

One of the most interesting interludes Olmsted had was in West Texas where he met free-thinking German immigrants who didn't like slavery or church. Many of them were veterans of the 1848 revolutions when upstarts grappled with the monarchies and lost. When the Civil War started the younger generation tried to flee to Mexico and try to eventually join up with union troops, but one of their fellow Germans ratted them out, and they were murdered in little known Nueces River massacre.

Horwitz's last book is not as entertaining as CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC, but I was struck by the similarities between pre Civil War America and 2019.