12/13/2004

John Mosier: Coming to a Civil War near you?

Having dispensed with The Myth of the Great War and The Blitzkrieg Myth, I wonder how long John Mosier can keep his hands off the Civil War.

The thing about these contrarian books that impress me on a business level is that they were sold by an unknown author to a major (trade) publisher (HarperCollins), one who has a deep catalog of military titles. The Blitzkrieg Myth, in particular, is bound to antagonize every WWII writer in the HarperCollins stable. My hunch is that a few have written nastygrams to complain.

There is, in fact, a little comedy awaiting anyone who might handle this volume and who can read the publicity tea leaves. If an author is completely bereft of friends with published books on the same topic, the publisher might roust out a few volunteers of its own to blurb a new work. You will notice that Blitzkrieg is completely blurb free.

And yet here it is, on a booksellers' shelf near you. Good for HarperCollins; good for Mosier; good for the future revision of Civil War history.