Shelby Foote died recently. If you've never read his three volume near-life's work, "The Civil War: A Narrative," do. One cannot understand America without also understanding what happened here between 1861 and 1865 and how it changed us. And there is no better way to understand it than to live it vicariously through Shelby Foote's powerful prose.
A man of the Mississippi Delta, Shelby Foote speaks with a drawl as thick as mollasses. He represents to my mind the quintessence of what it means to be a Southerner. Though I live in the benighted North, and my family's Southern heritage had been rendered a faint echo from a conquered land no longer my own, I rediscovered my Southern soul largely thanks to the life and writings of this good man.
To recover something of our American past that regrettably passes on when men like Shelby Foote leave us, watch/listen to the three hour in depth call-in interwiew of Shelby Foote done in September of 2001 on C-SPAN's Book TV. You'll be glad you did.
Poster Comment:
I can think of no better way to celebrate the 4th of July.