Friday, September 30, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
Friday, September 16, 2016
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Monday, September 12, 2016
Friday, September 9, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Disease in the Public Mind book review
My most recent book on tape was "A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War" by Thomas Fleming
Basically this is a book about slavery as the cause of the war. It starts off with the John Brown raid, then goes back to the creation of Constitution and follows the time line back through the end of the Civil War.
I thought it was a good book that covered many events of the first 100 years of the country. I would have one dispute though. Calling this a "new understanding of why we fought the Civil War" is far from accurate. Slavery was considered a cause of the war from the moment it happened. At various times other interpretations have emerged. Directly after the war the defeated Confederates tried to cast it as a conflict over states rights. It feels like slavery was diminished as a cause for quite awhile and sometime around the centennial made a comeback to its rightful place. At this point I'm not sure that anyone taking up a new study of the causes, without any bias, would not think that slavery was the main cause of the conflict. I'm not sure the point where this interpretation took hold but from my own experience I'd say this is far from a recent development.
So quibbling with a subtitle is my main complaint. Other than that I thought it was a good book.
Basically this is a book about slavery as the cause of the war. It starts off with the John Brown raid, then goes back to the creation of Constitution and follows the time line back through the end of the Civil War.
I thought it was a good book that covered many events of the first 100 years of the country. I would have one dispute though. Calling this a "new understanding of why we fought the Civil War" is far from accurate. Slavery was considered a cause of the war from the moment it happened. At various times other interpretations have emerged. Directly after the war the defeated Confederates tried to cast it as a conflict over states rights. It feels like slavery was diminished as a cause for quite awhile and sometime around the centennial made a comeback to its rightful place. At this point I'm not sure that anyone taking up a new study of the causes, without any bias, would not think that slavery was the main cause of the conflict. I'm not sure the point where this interpretation took hold but from my own experience I'd say this is far from a recent development.
So quibbling with a subtitle is my main complaint. Other than that I thought it was a good book.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Friday, September 2, 2016
84th Indiana - picket position
When I was single I took a trip to Chickamauga and camped near the battlefield for a week. It was a great trip in late October. Beautiful weather, walking the battlefields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga by day and sleeping in my little tent by night. The campground I stayed at was filled with RVs, I was the only tent there. I was asked silly questions while cooking dinners, things like "are you sleeping in that?" "No, I have an RV behind the tree line, the tent is just for changing shoes." One interesting aspect of the campground was that they said they had their own monument. And right by the main building they did have a plaque and cannons. But just beyond the tents they had a real monument. At the time I inquired at the national park if there were others like this and the look the guy gave me let me know that he didn't really know about this one.
