re: How long before books like this are banned in this nation?

You're creating a false equivalence between that book and the statues being taken down, though. I would not support removing memoirs from people like General Lee, because it is a legitimate study tool for historians. Those statues are not.

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The fact is that you cannot remove slavery from the Civil War.

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Nobody is trying to remove slavery from the civil war and nobody is attempting to defend slavery. So, glad we got that out of the way.

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less than 20% of southerners at the time were slave owners..and most soldiers were not

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This is an oft-recited percentage but is inaccurate in multiple ways, at least in what it is often used to suggest.

The 1860 census shows about 32% of Southern families owned slaves. The 20% number is derived from the number of adult individuals that owned slaves. The number is as low as 20% in AR and as high as 46/49% in SC and MS.

It also fails to take into account the majority of non-slaveholding households did so because they were too poor to won't them but aspired to own them. Many of these poorer families actually "rented" slaves from large plantations usually for a percentage of their crop yield.

This does nothing to argue against the fact the moral discussion was far different then than now.

You don't have to post every thought that pops into your head.

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I’ve read this book. Lee wrote eloquently and it was a very interesting read. He was not an evil mastermind and to look at him in such a way is very disturbing to me.

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As brilliant and honorable a man as he was, Lee will always be branded a traitor by most. He reluctantly sought to break up the Union because of his love for his state and the South. Many would say the Civil War cost him a legend of leadership in the United States. I definitely think he would have become a president had the war not occurred.

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I would not support removing memoirs from people like General Lee, because it is a legitimate study tool for historians. Those statues are not.

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Ok, you might not. That does not mean that the people that are actively going after the monuments don’t support it either. Is it really that far of a stretch to think they wouldn’t go after things like books at some point?

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What books have been banned because they’re “too black”?

I hope you guys appreciate what I’m going to say as a Yankee, but the only reason he’s being vilified is because he lost.

History is written and regarded by the victors... not necessarily right, but it’s the truth.

I don't think books like that should be banned, but the man did lead a war effort that was largely about owning people and maintaining a race-based social order. Pretty good reasons for people to think he's evil.