Allen Guelzo

Touring Gettysburg With Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler

by Kevin Levin on June 14, 2013 · 5 comments · Follow me on

I am hoping to have a bit of time to take Carol Reardon’s and Tom Vossler’s new Gettysburg guide out for a test run next week at the CWI. The book is right up my alley given its emphasis both on what happened during the time of the battle as well as the many postwar [...]

Two Views of J.E.B. Stuart’s Arrival at Gettysburg

by Kevin Levin on May 28, 2013 · 14 comments · Follow me on

Here is Allen Guelzo’s brief commentary on Stuart’s arrival on July 2. However late Stuart was in arriving, the Army of Northern Virginia was still glad to see him. As he rode along the York Pike in Gettysburg, “such joyful shouts as rent the air I never heard” and  “the cavalry for once was well [...]

Still making my way through Allen Guelzo’s Gettysburg: The Last Invasion. Here is how Guelzo sums up Confederate assaults on July 2 led by James Longstreet and Jubal Early. So much of the fighting ended in agonizingly near misses for the Army of Northern Virginia–the within-an-inch failure to capture Little Round Top…the last-minute blunting of [...]

It’s been interesting following some of the early reactions to Allen Guelzo’s new book from within that small, but devoted community of Gettysburg buffs on various social media channels.  I am not an expert on the battle. I’ve read a bit and only in the last year or so have I been able to find [...]

The Civil War’s Untold Story

by Kevin Levin on May 23, 2013 · 17 comments · Follow me on

It’s the name of a 5-part documentary that will air on PBS in February 2014.  The preview looks pretty good, though it’s not clear to me exactly what is new or “untold”.  The commentary by historians is certainly within the mainstream of current interpretation, but perhaps parts of it will be new to the general [...]

Slavery Traveled With the Army of Northern Virginia

by Kevin Levin on May 22, 2013 · 17 comments · Follow me on

Included in Allen Guelzo’s new book, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, is a brief examination of the size of both armies.  In looking at the Army of Northern Virginia Guelzo includes a few sources that estimate the number of slaves, who performed various roles as personal servants and impressed workers.  One particular account by English-born Confederate [...]

Best of 2012

by Kevin Levin on December 16, 2012 · 6 comments · Follow me on

The end of my first full year of living in Boston and what a year it’s been.  It should come as no surprise that the highlight of the past year was the publication of my first book in June.  I’ve always loved the social aspect of doing history, whether its teaching in the classroom, working [...]