Ta-Nehisi Coates Interviews Frank Smith

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I have become a big fan of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s column over at Atlantic Monthly, especially his thoughts about what the Civil War means to a young African American male.  [See here, here, and here] I’ve met Frank Smith a couple of times over the past few years, most recently in 2007, when I interviewed him [...]

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Thinking About Hattie McDaniel

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I am not too surprised that my students are enjoying Gone With the Wind.  The discussions have been pretty good thus far.  For Monday they must bring in a newspaper article about the movie and share it with the rest of the group.  I am hoping that they come in with articles from different decades [...]

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Have Unit Histories Hit a Brick Wall?

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I just finished reading Scott Mingus’s book on the Louisiana Tigers for a review in the journal, Louisiana History.  Mingus’s focus is specifically the Gettysburg Campaign (June-July 1863)  Let me just say at the outset that I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  Mingus has a command of the relevant primary sources and the book is well [...]

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A Confederate Invasion?

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I‘m behind in my APUS History classes which has forced me to move quickly through the Civil War.  You can imagine how frustrating that is given my interests.  Regardless, I am very particular about the language I use to describe the past and I expect my students to be attentive to such matters as well.  [...]

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If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox

Interestingly, this film was done in 1982, well before the YouTube Era.  You will have to excuse me, but for some reason I find this sort of video to be quite funny.  This one clearly reflects the persistence of the “Grant the Drunk” narrative.  A more recent video that depicts Grant with bottle can be [...]

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Dare To Ask Questions

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Somehow I became a topic of concern over at Michael Aubrecht’s blog because I dared to comment on the Richard Kirkland story during the same week that a new website and film preview were introduced.  I find it funny that both Aubrecht and Richard Williams make a point of minimizing my influence even as they [...]

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Gone With the Wind at 70

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This year is the 70th anniversary of Gone With the Wind and this week my Civil War Memory class will watch it.  Depending on how they respond to it we may even watch it in its entirety.  There are so many thought provoking scenes, which will allow us to address a number of interpretive threads [...]

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Black Confederates Defined on Facebook

One of my FB friends invited me to join a group dedicated to black Confederates. There are just under 200 members.  No surprise that just about all of them are white, including Rickey Pittman.  There is nothing serious about the site.  Essentially, it serves as a dumping ground for the same tired stories that populate [...]

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