This morning I awoke to a pretty nasty private email from a reader who was disappointed that I did not take the time to respond. I certainly understand the frustration, but while I do my best to respond to as many blog comments as possible, I simply cannot respond to each and every private email that I receive. On average I receive somewhere around 20 emails a day and on some days it can double and even triple. It would be impossible for me to get anything constructive done if I responded to each and every email. That said, I do read your email messages and I do appreciate you taking the time to write. Thanks for your understanding.
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"In this stunning and well-researched book, Kevin Levin catches the new waves of the study of memory, black soldiers, and the darker underside of the Civil War as well as anyone has... Levin is both superb scholar and public historian, showing us a piece of the real war that does now get into the books, as well as into site interpretation."
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
this person emailing you is clearly too ignorant and without a life to understand how things work.
Kevin,
Perhaps consider an automated e-mail response that tactfully restates all that you wrote above. Then at least the correspondent would be on notice that they may not get a response based on their terms and time frame.
Ah, celebrity is a harsh mistress.
“Being a celebrity is probably the closest to being a beautiful woman as you can get.”
Kevin Costner
That’s a great idea.
You always do your best to respond to comments in a timely manner and to keep the conversation civil, as you were to me when you didn’t appreciate my book mentions
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I enjoy your site and blog, and the questions you raise.
I can’t wait till you start “complaining” about the paparazzi !!
Thankfully there was no e-mail during the Civil War. I could see the whole Fort Henry-Fort Donelson campaign failing to get started because Grant would have spent all day answering e-mail messages from Halleck and Lincoln. Plus, he would have gotten copied on every subordinate’s e-mails as they all tried to cover themselves in case anything went wrong (“Well, General Grant, I did e-mail you on the condition of my command…”).
More seriously, when you read the memos and reports in the Official Record you are struck at how well written they are no matter the rank of the persons corresponding. E-mail works against good writing which is no small thing. Learning to properly organize words means also organizing thoughts and reasoning. We have now “advanced” to where business communication is a shot gun blizzard of short, disorganized, words and thoughts.
I would also echo what someone else said here. I’m impressed at how frequently you post on your blog and that you follow the comments so closely.