Civil War Memory Discussion Group

Peter Carmichael and I couldn’t be more pleased with the number and quality of responses to his post on black Confederates.  We were hoping that the post would attract the attention of individuals who approach the study of the Civil War from different perspectives.  To that end, we’ve decided to take it to the next level and try our hands at leading a discussion group that will focus on a specific book or article. 

After tossing around a few possibilities we decided on an article by Jason Phillips, titled “A Brother’s War?: Exploring Confederate Perceptions of the Enemy” which is included in Aaron Sheehan Dean’s ed. The View From the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers.  The article is relatively short and is pulled from his more recently published book, Diehard Rebels: The Confederate Culture of Invincibility, which I highly recommend to you.  We will contact Phillips to see if he is interested in taking part in this forum.  Here are the specifics: We will give you two weeks (Aug. 8) to purchase the book.  At that point Peter will post some interpretive questions to guide our reading and which can be used to get the discussion going.  The following week or two we will post some thoughts to begin the discussion and see where that takes us.

Some of the details need to be worked out, but I would love to get a sense of the level of enthusiasm out there for this proposal. 

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8 comments… add one
  • Billy Yank Jul 28, 2008 @ 11:36

    Sounds very interesting…looking forward to see what you decide on.

    Corey

  • Harry Smeltzer Jul 27, 2008 @ 16:09

    Kevin,

    How will this work? Will this be hosted on your blog as a post with comments, or will it be a live chat, or will it be an email group (ie Yahoo)?

    You’re doing some really funky things with your posts right now, and since I usually keep up with all the blogs on a Google feed reader, it’s getting very confusing!

  • James F. Epperson Jul 26, 2008 @ 10:27

    I’m interested, but the timing is poor. We are about
    to head East to visit family and tour colleges w/ my
    17 year old daughter. So I don’t know if I will be
    connected well enough or not.

    JFE

  • Kevin Levin Jul 26, 2008 @ 8:41

    Thanks everyone for expressing interest. It’s safe to assume that this is going to happen.

    Thud, — Great idea and one that I will look into.

  • Thud Jul 26, 2008 @ 8:33

    I will at least be lurking. If there’s a way you can manage to have threaded comments, this would probably help keep things pretty coherent. (Not sure what capabilities typepad has.)

  • Chris Slocombe Jul 25, 2008 @ 17:32

    Great idea! I have been looking for something like this for a while now. And the fact that you and Dr. Carmichael (and maybe Dr. Phillips) all are involved makes it very exciting. I’m looking forward to it.

  • Harry Jul 25, 2008 @ 15:12

    Interesting idea. Keep us posted.

  • Lisa Jul 25, 2008 @ 13:50

    Kevin,

    I think this is a great idea. I will definitely participate. My only complaint is that I’m afraid it will be like the Peter Carmichael black Confederate post where it’s incredibly difficult for me to keep up. I will manage though…..

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