A potentially useful series of books

It occurred to me that a really useful series of books for readers of any level that would be entirely analytical and at the same time enjoyable to read might follow the lines of "Problems of the ___ campaign."

Rather than correct any particular account of this or that campaign, or even a school of thought about a campaign, each book would divide a campaign into issues and problems, outline their difficulties and perhaps only briefly mention how this or that author attempted to resolve the matter. I'm not too sure about the last bit, because readers are defensive about their favorite authors and one wants the reader focused on issues of evidence, not to be distracted with worries over some writer's reputation.

Some problems addressed could be those of construction - showing how wide are the gaps in evidence over which literary bridges have been built to tell a story; plus problems of omission - descriptions of evidence generally slighted but necessary to understanding events; there are the tallies of materials known to be lost; there are those needed but supposed to be lost; there are the widely held facts that rest on a single uncorroborated source, and so on.

This idea came to me while reading criticism of this blog wherein people have apparently gone through three years' of archives and remain without understanding of my dissatisfaction with Civil War history. (My discontent is about evidence handling.)

To show, in a disapassionate light, the historiographic problems surrounding the rendering of a given campaign into "story" - will put people in the picture directly. They can then make their own judgements. And they won't have to pay the price in pain that the advanced reader paid as he made his way through a mountain of material one problem or contradiction at a time.

Now, if I take my own advice and make such a series available free, digital and searchable, on the Internet as a research aid; if I ensure it's indexed; and if I can do that in a way that the files remain available and accessible past the point of my death or loss of interest, I can have "failed better" as described in a previous post.