Posted on 07/29/2015 8:22:42 AM PDT by Davy Buck
Foote's narrative is such a breath of fresh air when compared to much of the politically motivated and agenda driven Civil War history of recent years. That alone would make it bad enough but, in addition, much of what is being written is not only poor history, it is poor literature.
(Foote remains of the few adults in a room of Civil War historians populated by juveniles.)
(Excerpt) Read more at oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com ...
Attended a lecture by Foote once. 4,000 people were in attendance.
It took me about five tries to get through the first volume. After I did, volumes two and three were like a fine novel, where knowing the ending didn’t detract from the experience.
Loved Shelby Foote. He’s the kind of person you’d want to sit and talk to for hours. Very few like him are left.
After having read the Narrative twice, I thought it would be nice to listen to the audiobook and have my son listen as well. The narrator's pronounced Yankee accent made it impossible to listen to. I can't figure out why the publishers picked that guy. Shelby Foote had a great voice and they could have had him read it while he was alive. A Brit would have been much better than the dude they picked.
I have the three volumes but have never tried it. I also have Bruce Catton’s books - there’s a name not to be forgotten. I prefer the older historians on the cw because the modern “historians” make me puke.
When I retired 7 years ago, I just knew I’d finally have the time to read Foote’s CW Trilogy. Alas, all three volumes sit on my bookshelf untouched by human hands.
It has been along time since I read the trilogy. I may restart it soon. Yes, it was like reading a novel. I loved the beautiful prose. The climax of the battle of Chancellorsville as depicted by Foote is beautiful and thrilling.
I just finished the 3-volume biography of Churchill that was started by William Manchester and finished by Paul Reid. In volume one, we learned that Churchill loved the historical writing of Thomas Babington Macauley. The distinguishing thing about Macauley was the beauty of his language (he also wrote poetry). Churchill memorized large stretches of Macauley's writing, and it is no accident that Churchill himself emulated Macauley by becoming one of the most eloquent writers of his time. I think Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy is an American version of the type of eloquent and thrilling history as written by Macauley and Churchill.
Too many historians are great historians and lousy writers. I wish more had the novelist's touch that Foote brought to his trilogy.
Bump
My son’s a CW buff. Just ordered the trilogy through Amazon for him. Thanks for the article.
I have read all of Bruce Catton’s works and am now working through Douglas Freeman. I have a lot of other histories to read, but am saving Foote for the icing on the cake.
After seeing the Civil War on Public Broadcasting, I wonder if it would be allowed to air now.
Some years ago I read ‘Traveler’ by Richard Adams.
Civil War novel as told by Gen Robt. E. Lee’s horse.
It’s written in southern horse dialect making it difficult at first. But shortly you get the hang of it.
Enjoyed it.
For example?
Worth while read...get started. ;>)
In Vol. III of the Random House nine volume set, Foote providez direct quotations of rabid northerners intent to annihilate the south.
A Massachusetts Colonel wrote, “...Do we fight to avenge...insult? No! The thing we seek is permanent dominion. And what instance is there of permanent dominion without changing, revolutionizing, absorbing, the institutions, life and manners of the conquered peoples?...
They think we mean to take their Slaves. Bah! We must take their ports, their mines, their water power, the very soil they plough, and develope them by the hands of our artisan armies...
We are to be a regenerating, colonizing power, or we are to be whipped. Schoolmasters, with howitzers, must instruct our Southern brethren that they are a set of damned fools in everything that relates to...modern civilization...This army must not come back. Settlement, migration must put the seal on battle, or we gain nothing.”
Elisions are those of the author, not mine.
I am a proud owner of Bruce Cattons mammoth pictorial volume "The Civil War".
But I am still most partial to Carl Sandburg's "Lincoln".
Some things never change!
Richard Adams is a wonderful novelist - well, he was. I loved Traveller (the book)and have visited his grave several times. Traveller was housed under the same roof as Lee after the war, lol.
I have read through his three volumes twice in my life; best scholarship and very readable as well.
I bought a new, awards winning biography of Andrew Jackson. I was amazed that the biography was written from the standpoint of Jackson’s promotion of white supremacy. That theme is majored in all college “United States” history classes. They got rid of the “American” in that, for obvious reasons.
“America” is OUT in media and academe because there are three countries in north America and so we are being oppressive and superior to both the Canadians and the Mexicans. You can read this in The Guardian newspaper everyday. It’s why I now refuse to call America “The states” as they do in England. It’s America and Americans 7/24 for me.
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