A reader writes:May I assume, from your references to undergraduate papers, that you are yourself a college professor? Would it kill you to say so--or do you assume that most of the people who read your blog already know?I am not a professor - I don't even have a graduate degree. Back in the 1970s, I did moonlight teaching English night school in Korea at a soldier's branch of the LACC for two semesters.
This reader says that many fine ACW blogs have gone under recently, so I checked my links and noticed that the frequency of postings at some of these sites might mislead one into thinking they have been abandoned but that the gaps between posts are consistent.
Now as to the certifiably inactive, I so pronounce
Les (Civil War Buff 75)
Civil War Sources
McGavock Cemetery
Milk after Cereal
Civil War Notes
That's a low mortality rate given the sample size. Meanwhile, Brett Schulte is reducing his postings. Brett's was, I believe the second ACW blog and Drew Wagenhoffer's the third (IIRC).
Here are some newer ACW blogs I discovered today.
Robert H. Moore, II, alias "Cenantua," is a student of hypertext theory so he gets top billing here (I myself once read Eastgate novels by night on my Mac Classic while developing context-sensitive help by day for Unix/Motif collateralized mortgage obligation trading applications on Wall Street.) He posts long, thoughtful items and seems interested in public history.
Bryan S. Bush has issued the Western Theater Civil War Blog and is already getting invitations to lecture and sign books. He maintains a respectabe schedule.
(Oddly enough, I used to get invitations to lecture as the head of the McClellan Society but have never gotten such since starting this blog. I suppose they don't invite difficult people.)
Kurt has launched a non-military Civil War blog, One Man's Rebellion Record, and is already attracting a substantial number of comments. He is using as a vehicle the life of a single soldier, E. J. Conger and posts long form.
Meanwhile, some items I enjoyed from the active posters:
Craig Warren disagrees with some of my Faulknerian post.
Eric Wittenberg has some thoughts on The History Channel rebranding itself as History.
This type of manipulation is becoming more common, the most extreme example being the rebranding of Flanders' green party as GROEN! In order to make any reference to this Belgian party you have to "shout," as if in affirmation, GREEN!. This offers many ideas for blog renaming ... but the trick is annoying.
Rene Tyree is boiling down Jomini to blog-sized bites. He liked my Faust piece.
Don, at Crossed Sabres, notes that writers might be cautious about starting a blog. For my part, without a blog, I would get no personal writing done ever.
Kevin may think I am baiting him with denigrations of McPherson and Gallagher but I do practice restraint in that department with him in mind. (Perhaps the time has come for super restraint.) These two are emblems of the worst tendencies in Civil War history since 1959.
The steady reader will dilute my outbursts to taste.
Cartoon via ZDNET.
