Thanks to David Thomson for the opportunity to interview with The Civil War Monitor’s new series, Behind the Lines. We talked mainly about my Crater book and toward the end I babble on a bit about blogging and social media. If you are curious the book is doing very well. Some of you are familiar with the standard academic press contract and I am now confident that within a few months I will make enough profit to take my wife out to a nice dinner. You can still pick up the book at a 40% discount. Just use the coupon code on the book page. [The code will override the 20% discount that you will see on the publisher’s book page.]
The book has received some favorable reviews. Jim Cullen reviewed it for History News Network earlier this summer and I was especially pleased to see Caroline Janney’s positive review in The Civil War Monitor. I first learned about William Mahone in a summer seminar for history teachers at the University of Virginia taught by Gary Gallagher and William Thomas. Carrie was one of the teaching assistants for the course. I am very much looking forward to her forthcoming study of Civil War memory, which will be published next year as part of the University of North Carolina Press’s Littlefield Series.
A couple of shorter blog posts have appeared with mixed reviews. Brendan Wolfe offered a thoughtful and critical assessment at the Encyclopedia Virginia blog on parts of the first chapter. I offered some feedback, but have not seen anything on the rest of the book. More curious is Tim Talbott’s review at Random Thoughts on History. It seems I overlooked a Confederate account of the battle that even he can’t reference. Again, most of the focus is on the first chapter. In the end I appreciate that they took the time to read at least parts of the book.
Nice interview. Book is a very nice read.
Thanks, Pat. I very much appreciate the kind words.