Fall readings 2014.

KeskusteluAmerican Civil War

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Fall readings 2014.

Tämä viestiketju on "uinuva" —viimeisin viesti on vanhempi kuin 90 päivää. Ryhmä "virkoaa", kun lähetät vastauksen.

1Ammianus
lokakuu 16, 2014, 7:09 am

I am really enjoying John F. Marszalek's Lincoln and the Military (Concise Lincoln Library). I don't know about the rest of the works in the brand new Lincoln Library series but this slim volume is excellent. Highly recommended.

2Billhere
Muokkaaja: lokakuu 16, 2014, 12:52 pm

Just finished Confederate Goliath by Rod Gragg, about the battles for Fort Fisher.

3jcbrunner
lokakuu 16, 2014, 2:04 pm

>2 Billhere: I liked both his 26th NC regimental history and the Fort Fisher book.

More listening and watching than reading but still highly recommended is Eric Foner's ColumbiaX MOOC: HIST1.1x Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850-1861, a good series of lectures whose second part will be about the war proper. I only wish it included a module about the world in the 1850s and 60s for context.

There were also other wars going on around the world that were similar in technology and in some aspects of society to the Civil War. If you know Danish, you might be interested in watching the new 8-part drama series 1864 about the Second Schleswig War (Youtube) or Danish-Prussian War that is being streamed with Danish subtitles (no English, I am afraid). The first episode was underwhelming but posed the interesting question about the modern relevance of the war (apart from making Denmark less Germanic and more Scandinavian). The BBC has optioned the series, so there will be an English subtitled version coming.

For Fall or more likely Xmas reading, I am looking forward to Timothy Smith's new Shiloh: Conquer or Perish (Modern War Studies), blurbed by John F. Marszalek: "One of the nation's leading Civil War historians, Tim Smith has produced what may be his best work yet. This volume is the definitive book on the critical battle of Shiloh. Its stirring prose and exhaustive research will stir the historical imagination of scholars and the general public both."


4Billhere
lokakuu 25, 2014, 10:25 am

Just finished War So Terrible by McDonough and Pickett. While they clearly admire (but do NOT worship) Sherman's strategic abilities, they're not fans of either J. Johnston or Hood.

5Ammianus
lokakuu 25, 2014, 10:49 am

I think the fans of JJ & JBH form a limited cohort.

6rolandperkins
Muokkaaja: lokakuu 25, 2014, 4:04 pm

"J. Johnston". . .(4>5)

Iʻve read that Joseph Johnston,* CSA,
contracted pneumonia while, out of respect for his old enemy, attending William T. Sherman, USAʻs funeral.

JJ didnʻt survive the
pneumonia, so the two
war-"Titans" died,one right after the other.
True, or just a legend?

*For those interested in the Fantasies and Foibles of
Touchstones /Search, clicking on the Joseph Johnston of this post leads to an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight!

7Ammianus
lokakuu 25, 2014, 7:42 pm

#6, true story.

8rolandperkins
lokakuu 25, 2014, 7:59 pm

Thanks, Ammianus

9anthonywillard
lokakuu 25, 2014, 9:44 pm

Reading Noah Andre Trudeau's The Last Citadel : Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865. I liked his book about the Overland Campaign better (Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864), but that may be because of the nature of the subject material in both cases. The Overland Campaign has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but Petersburg seems just to have a middle.

Also reading a couple of volumes from The History Press Sesquicentennial Series, Hood's Tennessee Campaign by James R. Knight, and The Battle of Allatoona Pass : Civil War Skirmish in Bartow County, Georgia by Brad Butkovich. I find that the books in this series usually make up in enthusiasm what they lack in depth. And many of them cover events not often written about. Also, they have interesting pictures.

Continuing my daily reading of E. B. Long's The Civil War Day by Day : An Almanac 1861-1865. I have been doing this since the start of the Sesquicentennial. In addition to many minute details, it provides a unique perspective on how long things took, how for long stretches of time very little military action was going on.