Monday, November 05, 2012

My Twinkie

Back in June the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College chose my book The Hard Hand of War as "the book of the conference," meaning that all participants were asked to read it and a round table was convened specifically to discuss it.  That was a real honor and one I much appreciated.

Recently CSPAN-3 aired the roundtable.  Panelists included Susannah Ural, Keith Bohannon, Megan Kate Nelson, Brooks Simpson, and myself.  The whole thing is a bit over an hour in length, but for my money the most delightful moment in it occurred when Megan  remarked that the book was almost twenty years old, was still a standard work on the subject, and that it was "unusual for a book to have that kind of shelf life. . . . It's like a Twinkie.  It's still fresh."  I've never considered Twinkies to be exactly fresh, but they are certainly timeless.  I'm confident that they will survive a nuclear conflict, global warming, or pretty much any other calamity.  So it was really a very nice compliment.

3 comments:

BarKochba said...

Another "Twinkie": cspan3 now airing "Warfare...White Identity" by MarkG. A great piece, not only re war history, but more, a great explication of the creation of race in America.

BarKochba said...

Another "Twinkie": cspan3 now airing "War...White Identity", with MarkG. Great piece re war history; even more, re creation of race in America.

John Kelley CW Photographic Historian said...

While waiting to have an endoscopy I finished reading your great book The Hard Hand of War. My thoughts: more study is needed on related issues, but my big question is: What did Lincoln know and when did he know it regarding destruction in Jackson, Meridian, Marrietta and Atlanta Georgia Columbia SC?
It is incredible to note how the Commander in Chief is left out of the conversation of war on the ground, ie, costs.