After writing two short posts about American Experience’s Death and the Civil War I decided to write up something a bit more comprehensive for the Atlantic. You can read it here in its entirety. In his interview with Harvard president and historian Drew G. Faust about American Experience‘s new documentary Death and the Civil War, [...]
Drew Faust
A few months ago I received a preview copy of American Experience’s Death and the Civil War, which will air on PBS this week. This weekend I finally had a chance to watch it through, which seems appropriate given that we are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the battle of Antietam. I am not going [...]
You should definitely take a look at Drew G. Faust’s NEH 2011 Jefferson Lecture, titled, “Telling War Stories: Reflections of a Civil War Historian.” [pdf] It is incredibly thoughtful. [Click here for David Blight's introductory remarks.] I think Faust effectively explains the difficulty of trying to capture the horrors of war as well as the [...]
One of the nice things about my job is that I get to work one-on-one with seniors who are interested in doing independent work in history. I am finishing up a project with one of my students on how the Civil War was commemorated here in Charlottesville between 1880 and 1920 and beginning the process [...]
It’s difficult to deny that the image of women in the work of contemporary Civil War artists tells us much more about the individual artist than the reality of women’s lives or the way those lives were transformed during the Civil War. I pick on Mort Kunstler quite a bit, but his characters beg for [...]
I am pleased to see that the new PBS documentary, “Looking for Lincoln” is available for viewing on their website. I’m not sure if this is the complete broadcast, but enough is included to give you a sense of the scope as well as content. The program is divided into relatively small sections, which makes [...]
It’s time for the fourth annual installment of the best in Civil War books and blogs from the past year. This is an opportunity to acknowledge those books that have been both a pleasure to read and which have left me with a great deal to ponder. Once again this list reflects just a fraction [...]
