One of the strangest sensations you or I will ever have as Civil War history readers involves detecting a certain scholarship practice that is so weird - and so immoral - that it has no name.
I call it "reversing a citation" or "flipping a citation." This reversing or flipping involves an author linking a statement to a source whose meaning is the mirror image of what the author is asserting. For example, imagine I say:
General Franklin arrived at the Antietam battlefield with 10,900 combat-ready men (Note 1).
You flip to Note 1 and read: "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, page X."
You pick up Battles and Leaders, find page X, and find nothing that attaches to the number 10,900. Instead, you find a narrative by Franklin about arriving on the battlefield at Antietam with 6,000 exhausted men.
Your author has flipped or reversed the citation. The source makes the point that Franklin arrived with fewer, more tired men than the author wishes to allow. Your author wishes Franklin to arrive with many men, full of fight. He has compelled Franklin to testify against himself and to lie in court doing so!
I'll give an ACW example or two of this in the next few days. in general, the more thesis-driven an historian is, the more of this you find.
For a nice warm-up drill showing a shockingly huge number of reversals, astound yourself with this posting by Prof. Clayton Cramer on Prof. Michael Bellesisle's use of sources. The number of flips exceeds anything I've seen in a pop history, ACW or otherwise. For other sins Cramer finds in Bellesiles (that we will examine in the ACW corner) see this piece, too.
12/31/2003
My biggest historiographic shock of 2002/2003 was discovering that in Frederick, MD, there are lots of things named after the late Chief Justice Roger Taney, including public assistance housing.
And so, as you drive through town, you see black Americans coming and going from houses prominently marked "TANEY." For me, it is still a show stopper, and I can't help but gawk.
I associate Taney completely with the adverse Dred Scott decision as well as (is this folklore?) a legal decision that no ex-slave could ever become an American citizen.
The Washington Times has noticed the world capital of Taneymania and has written a nice little article about political and historiographic issues surrounding his house in Frederick.
And so, as you drive through town, you see black Americans coming and going from houses prominently marked "TANEY." For me, it is still a show stopper, and I can't help but gawk.
I associate Taney completely with the adverse Dred Scott decision as well as (is this folklore?) a legal decision that no ex-slave could ever become an American citizen.
The Washington Times has noticed the world capital of Taneymania and has written a nice little article about political and historiographic issues surrounding his house in Frederick.
12/30/2003
The reissue of Arming America in a less than fully revised edition has reignited the Bellesiles history and integrity issue ... and there is a lot in this of great import for Civil War readers.
The very first thing a reader should understand is that a good read is not good history. Yes, pop history has something to do with history just as the World Wrestling Federation has something to do with the sport of wrestling.
Here is public discussion of "good" Civil War historians in which no distinction is made between entertainment and the underlying discipline.
I imagine some TV wrestling fans riding a college wrestling team tour bus to a college contest surrounded by honest athletes and trying to discuss which World Wrestling Federation personality is the greatest wrestler of this generation. An athlete's objection to this obvious absurdity could be met by reference to all the prizes and awards won by the "professional wrestlers." The trophies. The big belts. The acclaim. Given, of course, by industry organizations and an adoring but ignorant public.
We are lucky that standards for historians are still published and that we readers can hold our authors to a professional code. Here's a handbook to keep near the bedside and refer to when reading your next ACW tome.
Bellesiles' individual specific failures in Arming America were publicly highlighted in a way that forced his publisher, his university, and the Bancroft prize board to consider his sins. We may have some wait before this same scenario plays out among the worst ACW historians - the ones who leap from the ropes and break chairs over facts.
For as his new publisher has correctly pointed out, few pop historians (and Bellesiles is such) could withstand the scrutiny he endured. In the next few days I will map specific failures in MB's work against certain beloved, prize-winning Civil war histories.
What happened to Bellesiles is a reality, and we are going to bring that reality home to the Civil War History Writing Federation through the week.
The very first thing a reader should understand is that a good read is not good history. Yes, pop history has something to do with history just as the World Wrestling Federation has something to do with the sport of wrestling.
Here is public discussion of "good" Civil War historians in which no distinction is made between entertainment and the underlying discipline.
I imagine some TV wrestling fans riding a college wrestling team tour bus to a college contest surrounded by honest athletes and trying to discuss which World Wrestling Federation personality is the greatest wrestler of this generation. An athlete's objection to this obvious absurdity could be met by reference to all the prizes and awards won by the "professional wrestlers." The trophies. The big belts. The acclaim. Given, of course, by industry organizations and an adoring but ignorant public.
We are lucky that standards for historians are still published and that we readers can hold our authors to a professional code. Here's a handbook to keep near the bedside and refer to when reading your next ACW tome.
Bellesiles' individual specific failures in Arming America were publicly highlighted in a way that forced his publisher, his university, and the Bancroft prize board to consider his sins. We may have some wait before this same scenario plays out among the worst ACW historians - the ones who leap from the ropes and break chairs over facts.
For as his new publisher has correctly pointed out, few pop historians (and Bellesiles is such) could withstand the scrutiny he endured. In the next few days I will map specific failures in MB's work against certain beloved, prize-winning Civil war histories.
What happened to Bellesiles is a reality, and we are going to bring that reality home to the Civil War History Writing Federation through the week.
12/29/2003
Brendan Kane, a Union Army deserter, returns North after the Civil War and signs onto a two-year stint as a ship's mate on the Narthex, bound for the Arctic. The crew, a cadre of second-rate sailors, paroled prisoners and other misfits, does not initially know its destination. Far from civilization, they are informed that the trip, led by the enigmatic Mr. West and scientist-in-residence Dr. Architeuthis, seeks to search out a tropical paradise in the heart of the Arctic ice.
Coming to a screen near you (eventually)?
Coming to a screen near you (eventually)?
12/26/2003
I don't pretend to have read Cold Mountain, and it seems unlikely I'll view the movie. Kudos, nevertheless to publisher and producer for conveying to a mass audience the themes of Civil War desertion.
The best-known non-fiction work on this subject is probably The Free State of Jones. Jones County, Mississippi, attracted Rebel and Confederate deserters as well as runaway slaves who waged war on the local Home Guards and Confederate notables. Whether these counterrevolutionaries seized control of their county government and whether they actually seceded from Mississippi seems to be a controversy lasting to the present time.
The essential book on Civil War desertion was published in 1928 and is still available in a more recent paperback edition: Desertion During the Civil War is a short read, dense with numbers, anecdotes and implications.
A more recent work (A Higher Duty: Desertion among Georgia Troops during the Civil War) studies the circumstances of desertion and relates them to family straits. This author suggests that Sherman's march had a far greater effect on Georgian desertions than Grant's offensives.
There is, inevitably, the larger question of loyalty. Disloyalty in the Confederacy tours the peace socities, the unionist groups, as well as the levels of desertion from the Rebel cause.
The business of Civil War desertion is so vast and the readings available are so meager that one hopes Cold Mountain attains enough success to spark some new non-fiction pulishing on the subject.
The best-known non-fiction work on this subject is probably The Free State of Jones. Jones County, Mississippi, attracted Rebel and Confederate deserters as well as runaway slaves who waged war on the local Home Guards and Confederate notables. Whether these counterrevolutionaries seized control of their county government and whether they actually seceded from Mississippi seems to be a controversy lasting to the present time.
The essential book on Civil War desertion was published in 1928 and is still available in a more recent paperback edition: Desertion During the Civil War is a short read, dense with numbers, anecdotes and implications.
A more recent work (A Higher Duty: Desertion among Georgia Troops during the Civil War) studies the circumstances of desertion and relates them to family straits. This author suggests that Sherman's march had a far greater effect on Georgian desertions than Grant's offensives.
There is, inevitably, the larger question of loyalty. Disloyalty in the Confederacy tours the peace socities, the unionist groups, as well as the levels of desertion from the Rebel cause.
The business of Civil War desertion is so vast and the readings available are so meager that one hopes Cold Mountain attains enough success to spark some new non-fiction pulishing on the subject.
12/25/2003
Christmas on Cold Mountain:
The Christmas offering Cold Mountain defines the 10-pound holiday fruitcake movie: nutty, fruity morsels of acting are enveloped in a dry, chewy mass. - Metroactive
Half of me worshipfully intoned: "This is wondrous to the eye, I shall follow Minghella wherever he leads me." The other half thought, "Here is a cracked and cuckoo piece of storytelling." - Financial Times
The Christmas offering Cold Mountain defines the 10-pound holiday fruitcake movie: nutty, fruity morsels of acting are enveloped in a dry, chewy mass. - Metroactive
Half of me worshipfully intoned: "This is wondrous to the eye, I shall follow Minghella wherever he leads me." The other half thought, "Here is a cracked and cuckoo piece of storytelling." - Financial Times
12/24/2003
Ahhhh. The Chicago Tribune "gets it."
Here's an English filmmaker (Minghella) directing an Australian (Kidman) and an Englishman (Law) in the leads, with an Irishman (Gleeson) and another Englishman (Winstone) in major supporting roles in an American Civil War tale filmed in Romania. Perhaps none of that should matter -- and some of these elements work just fine -- but the result is something that just doesn't feel authentic.
Historian Brian Pohanka comments on his role in the authenticity mission. (Skip to page two of this link to read his remarks - note that this link repeated below as "Gary Gallagher.")
Here's an English filmmaker (Minghella) directing an Australian (Kidman) and an Englishman (Law) in the leads, with an Irishman (Gleeson) and another Englishman (Winstone) in major supporting roles in an American Civil War tale filmed in Romania. Perhaps none of that should matter -- and some of these elements work just fine -- but the result is something that just doesn't feel authentic.
Historian Brian Pohanka comments on his role in the authenticity mission. (Skip to page two of this link to read his remarks - note that this link repeated below as "Gary Gallagher.")
12/23/2003
Here is an interesting essay tying the now-revived Michael Bellesiles historical research scandal to that famous plagiarism committed by Civil War historian Allan Nevins at Columbia. (I like the panache of Nevins' suppressing the study after lifting its best bits.)
Later this week, we'll go deeper into lessons learned from Bellesiles and their meaning for Nevins' intellectual heirs in ACW history.
Later this week, we'll go deeper into lessons learned from Bellesiles and their meaning for Nevins' intellectual heirs in ACW history.
12/22/2003
I see columnist/professor Walter Williams has issued a "Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to All Persons of European Descent." Suitable for framing, but no overt mention of reparations exemption. (Go to this link and click on GIFT.)
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