The book of essays pulled from the New York Times’s Disunion column has been out for a couple of weeks now. It’s a pretty hefty volume that includes over 100 essays on the period between 1861 and the beginning of 1863. My only complaint is that the table of contents does not list individual essays, [...]
Teaching
It’s one of those days where I can’t help but miss central Virginia and the opportunity to bring my students to Chancellorsville for the 150th anniversary. Chancellorsville was the first Civil War battle that I attempted to interpret for those students who took my Civil War class. Interpreting a battlefield rarely involved the close analysis [...]
The first year teaching at any school is all about acclimation to the culture. For someone who grew up Jewish, was Bar Mitvahed, but then lost all interest it’s been quite an adventure this past year teaching at a Jewish academy. The emphasis on Judaic Studies and the celebration of holidays feels both foreign and [...]
Update: I couldn’t be more pleased to learn that the class in question is being taught by Steve Kantrowitz. Professor Kantrowitz is the author of More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829-1889, which was my pick as the best history book of 2012. The book is of particular interest to [...]
How do I know this? Fold3 is offering free access to all of its Confederate records during the month of April, which happens to be Confederate History Month. Well, it’s CHM in the few places that still acknowledge it. Check out the press release from the Georgia Division SCV. So much is portrayed by Hollywood [...]
Tomorrow I hope to finish up an essay that I was asked to write for one of the Civil War journals over a year ago about the the influence of digital technologies on how we write and research history and how that has fueled the myth of the black Confederate soldier. At the end of [...]
Once again, the courts have supported the right of school districts to ban students from wearing clothing that includes the Confederate flag. The most recent case involved a school district in South Carolina in which a student repeatedly clashed with school administrators over a number of t-shirts that likely were purchased at a local Dixie [...]
Worried about who your teenager idolizes? Well, now you can return them to the good old days of the Civil War and Southern chivalry with Lochlainn Seabrook’s book about Nathan Bedford Forrest that is geared specifically for teens. Ride along with Forrest and get a firsthand look at his childhood in Tennessee, his teens in [...]
