Week in Review: September 25th - October 2nd
John Travolta...Now and Then?
Civil War History in the News…
In the strange but true news, Nicholas Cage is apparently not the only famous actor with a Civil War-era doppelganger. For a mere $50,000 you can buy an 1860s-era photograph of a John Travolta look-alike! And, the mystery over the missing marker of Admiral David G. Farragut's birthplace was finally solved. Apparently the owner, Lylan Fitzgerald, was tired of the controversy over the stone, so she removed it herself.
Around the Blogosphere...
Digital Media Advisor and Civil War Memory guru Kevin Levin discusses the role that the internet has positively affected the sesquicentennial in "Civil War Remembrance 2.0":
The Internet and the introduction of Web 2.0 tools have shattered the ability of any one institution or even a select few to speak for the nation. The democratization of the web allows all of us to engage in individual acts of remembrance through participation in wikis, listservs, blogs and the creation of ever more creative digital projects…We have always had the ability as individuals to create cultural or material forms of historical memory, but what has changed is the potential visibility of such artifacts through their publication and sharing on the Web.
Chris Mackowski of Emerging Civil War plays the “what if” game in “If Jackson hadn’t gotten shot”: Facing the Counterfactual Specter of Stonewall Jackson’s Wounding.” Meanwhile, over at Disunion, Susan Schulten is “Mapping the Cotton Kingdom” via an 1861 map by Frederick Law Olmsted. And, Keith Harris of The Front Line and Cosmic America puts J. David Hacker’s “Recounting the Dead” in perspective:
The population of the United States in 1860 (that is the whole enchilada…before secession) was roughly 31,500,000 people – and around 4,000,000 of these folks were held in bondage. Based on the laws of higher mathematics, that means that somewhere around 2% of the total 1860 population lost their lives as a result of this war…The population of the United States in 1860 (that is the whole enchilada…before secession) was roughly 31,500,000 people – and around 4,000,000 of these folks were held in bondage. Based on the laws of higher mathematics, that means that somewhere around 2% of the total 1860 population lost their lives as a result of this war.
More Praise for The Civil War Monitor and CivilWarMonitor.com
From The Front Line and To The Sound of Guns blogger Craig Swain:
The premier issue of the new magazine – The Civil War Monitor – has made quite a splash here on line… Taken together, these set a fresh tone from the new magazine…What’s more, the Civil War Monitor’s web site promises to be an interactive feature all its own. Fellow bloggers Andy Hall (Dead Confederates), Keith Harris (Cosmic America: Civil War History and Memory), Robert Moore (Cenantua’s Blog), Harry Smeltzer (Bull Runnings), and Jim Schmidt (Civil War Medicine and Writing) are contributing posts on the magazine’s blog page…A job well done by the staff of Civil War Monitor.
Now, certainly, the feel and look (love the decision on the cover art) of the magazine move beyond (a good thing) the traditional presentations found on many a CW mag, I like the blend on the inside as well, beginning in the “Salvo” section, and rolling through the features. I think one of the smallish morsels that struck a positive chord in me were the “Voices” section (literally, quotes from people who lived that time… with no intervening interpretation by contemporary historians), and the “Parting Shot” (a “word cloud” comparing Davis and Lincoln), because they smacked (in a positive way) of an effort to reach out to the Web-techies, whether they be deep in their interests of the Civil War, or, perhaps, just beginning to test the waters…But…that’s not all. As many folks in the know are now aware, there is also the electronic arm of the magazine (hence, the current header from that page, seen above) which, in my opinion, puts CWM in a class by itself.
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