North v South

Much to the amusement of colonel_maxim, ellefurtle and I have been watching her DVDs of North and South - at least we’ve been watching season one, I think. There has been quite a lot of TV time, four very long episodes and we’ve only just had the Harper’s Ferry incident. I am beginning to wonder if the show doesn’t re-enact the American Civil War in real time.

Some of the programme is very cheesy; I rather expect Rhett Butler to wander in on occasion and give them all a dressing down before wandering off to do something heroic back in Gone-With-The-Wind-Ville, but some of it is first class. It does suffer somewhat from the glossy, with decorous dirt and gallant injury syndrome of so much US TV drama, but then that should be expected for something filmed in the mid ‘80s, I guess¹.

Anyway, the point is, that though we haven’t actually got even as far as secession and the outbreak of way (just) yet, I find that it has rekindled my interest in the history of the period. Somewhere I have a copy of Battle Cry of Freedom but I seem to have misplaced it. I was going to dig it out and have a re-read. As annoyed as I am that I cannot find it, I do recall that I found the writing style rather hard going last time I tackled it many moons back.

Does anyone out there have any recommendations for a readable (preferably single-volume) history of the American Civil War? I am aware that countless trees have died to provide paper for the hundreds (or thousands) of worthy tomes on the period, but I should like something a little more succinct and accessible.

¹ I have always wondered why this should be; US TV is often very unadventurous, pandering to knot-browed Neanderthal sentiments on the religious right in the bible belt on the one hand and the slack-jaw intellect of the inbred mountain communities on the other. How does the mass of normal citizenry cope? Hollywood on the other hand often goes off in quite the opposite direction. The rule is not, of course universal (no pun intended) and a lot of TV in the past 10-15 years has been relatively more realistic in depiction if not story lines. Hill Street Blues was a standout in its day, but would be lost these days amongst the “gritty” crime shows, but US soaps are still very squeaky and plastic. Or at least the ones that make it over here, are.

North v South

Much to the amusement of colonel_maxim, ellefurtle and I have been watching her DVDs of North and South - at least we’ve been watching season one, I think. There has been quite a lot of TV time, four very long episodes and we’ve only just had the Harper’s Ferry incident. I am beginning to wonder if the show doesn’t re-enact the American Civil War in real time.

Some of the programme is very cheesy; I rather expect Rhett Butler to wander in on occasion and give them all a dressing down before wandering off to do something heroic back in Gone-With-The-Wind-Ville, but some of it is first class. It does suffer somewhat from the glossy, with decorous dirt and gallant injury syndrome of so much US TV drama, but then that should be expected for something filmed in the mid ‘80s, I guess¹.

Anyway, the point is, that though we haven’t actually got even as far as secession and the outbreak of way (just) yet, I find that it has rekindled my interest in the history of the period. Somewhere I have a copy of Battle Cry of Freedom but I seem to have misplaced it. I was going to dig it out and have a re-read. As annoyed as I am that I cannot find it, I do recall that I found the writing style rather hard going last time I tackled it many moons back.

Does anyone out there have any recommendations for a readable (preferably single-volume) history of the American Civil War? I am aware that countless trees have died to provide paper for the hundreds (or thousands) of worthy tomes on the period, but I should like something a little more succinct and accessible.

¹ I have always wondered why this should be; US TV is often very unadventurous, pandering to knot-browed Neanderthal sentiments on the religious right in the bible belt on the one hand and the slack-jaw intellect of the inbred mountain communities on the other. How does the mass of normal citizenry cope? Hollywood on the other hand often goes off in quite the opposite direction. The rule is not, of course universal (no pun intended) and a lot of TV in the past 10-15 years has been relatively more realistic in depiction if not story lines. Hill Street Blues was a standout in its day, but would be lost these days amongst the “gritty” crime shows, but US soaps are still very squeaky and plastic. Or at least the ones that make it over here, are.

Windfall!

This sort of thing never happens to me: Boy nets £44,000 on eBay!. I did find a fiver in the street once, though.

I bet there's a drug dealer somewhere with a Playstation 2, contemplating having someone's feet shoved in concrete overshoes and dropped in a lake! Just as well the kid's parents called the police; but he may get to keep it if they can't trace the true owner.

Windfall!

This sort of thing never happens to me: Boy nets £44,000 on eBay!. I did find a fiver in the street once, though.

I bet there's a drug dealer somewhere with a Playstation 2, contemplating having someone's feet shoved in concrete overshoes and dropped in a lake! Just as well the kid's parents called the police; but he may get to keep it if they can't trace the true owner.

Creak

Ooh, I've been sitting still too long; me grunions are twallocked and rundge when I move.

Hey ho.

Time to go home.

Creak

Ooh, I've been sitting still too long; me grunions are twallocked and rundge when I move.

Hey ho.

Time to go home.