Over at Civil Warriors Ethan Rafuse has posted a video by Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, author of West Pointers in the Civil War: The Old Army in War and Peace, in which Wayne responds to a line in Ethan’s review of Wayne’s book in The Journal of Military History. As before, when you click on Civil Warriors you get a warning that it is an attack site, although to the best of my knowledge it is not (I can think of a few blogs where that would be appropriate in a different way).
After I watched Wayne’s response to the review, I noticed that it was one of four videos he’s offered: you can access them all here. It appears that Wayne’s a Dodgers fan … lfnb%$woi!*ne[opbn}v
… excuse me, but it’s really hard to type when one’s laughing uncontrollably.
Watch Wayne’s videos, and then tell me what you think of this method of an author discussing a book as opposed to, say, the old tried and true methods of eleven years ago, namely … this.
Crossroads 
Civil Warriors has been hacked again.
Clicking it brought up a” WARNING CLICKING THIS SITE MAY HARM YOU COMPUTER”
Just curious, Ray … did you actually read my blog entry?
“As before, when you click on Civil Warriors you get a warning that it is an attack site, although to the best of my knowledge it is not (I can think of a few blogs where that would be appropriate in a different way).”
A reminder to all … I no longer post at Civil Warriors, and I’m not part of the team of bloggers there. Both Ethan and Mark are good friends of mine, but you’ll have to direct your comments about their blog to them.
I took that to mean attacks by bloggers on other bloggers, not a hacked virus infected site.
Which is why I said “in a different way.” Now, back to Wayne’s videos …
Did Wayne have another option, has he been invited to be on such a show? I like C-Span and Book TV, they make better sunday morning viewing than the talking head political shows. that is {if there isn’t an F1 race on}
How did you get on Booknotes, a show I watch and like.
Did you’re publisher or agent arrange it, does the show contact people it thinks have worthwhile books out? I assume the former but I am curious
Lamb has a style rare for interviewers these days in that he lets the subject do the talking and doesn’t use the show to showcase himself.and his opinions.
Wayne in his bit seems to back up what Ethan said of the book.
That being the title and content don’t really match. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good book.
nor does it seem Ethan attacked the value of the content of the book
Brian Lamb decided who he wanted to have on Booknotes (one could be on it only once). He’s an interesting fellow. That day I also taped a second show on Henry Adams. The people at C-SPAN were very nice.
I don’t know what Wayne’s options have been, but he’s chosen YouTube to do something, and I was curious as to what people thought.
It’s always better to have an intelligent interloculator to help focus your comments. Wayne has a tendency to ramble and get off on tangents. And he really should have more than one shirt and tie. 😉
As to the book, it’s in my “to read” pile so I haven’t read it yet, but this makes the third time I’ve heard Wayne speak about it, and solely from his presentations I don’t believe he’s made a persuasive case that the reason the Civil War lasted as long as it did was the presence of West Pointers on both sides. Did the size of the confederacy have nothing to do with it? The rifled musket? Defenders fighting behind breastworks?
It seems to me his claim is really making too much out of a single factor that may have had an influence on the length of the war.
Nice interview on “Ulysses S. Grant 1822-1865: Triumph over Adversity.” It’s always impressive to see an interviewer and interviewee actually stay on topic and productively cover so much ground.
But (along the lines noted in Lamb’s conclusion) it does give rise to the question: When can readers hope to read a volume called “Ulysses S. Grant 1865-85: The Struggle for Justice and Reconciliation” (or some such title)? Any idea?
I expect that “Ulysses S. Grant: The Fruits of Victory, 1865-1885” will be out in the not-too-distant future.
Great!
Great news ! We’ll have to get 2 copies so my wife and I don’t fight over it !!!!!!!!!!!