The Civil War: Thoughts

This month marks 150 years from the start of our Civil War with the attack on Fort Sumpter.  I had not really focused in on that fact when by sheer coincidence I began watching Ken Burns’ epic nine-part series on the Civil War.  It was being presented on Amazon’s streaming video service and I had not seen the whole thing before so I gave it a shot.  The series had a pretty deep effect on me because it made me put today’s bitter political conflict in context.  Sure, I may get apoplectic over the right wing’s callous, selfish, often racist positions, but I’m not trying to kill them in an all out war between our competing views.  That really happened in the Civil War and it makes me pause mightily to imagine how much hatred I would have to conjure up to be able to maim or kill my own countrymen.

The series also made me want to learn much, much more about that conflict.  Thus I decided to read about it in great detail.  A big part of the Burns series was the commentary of Shelby Foote, who is considered a true expert on the Civil War.  Plus, I really dug his accent, his humor, and his gravitas.  So, I ordered the paper back boxed set of  “The Civil War” by Shelby Foote, which arrived today from Amazon.  It is comprised of three fat volumes in an attractive, sturdy sleeve, and it weighs 9+ pounds!  I can hardly wait.  (More on that later). 

I wanted to make a comment about Foote.  Many of the Amazon reviews I read said that Shelby Foote had sympathy for the Southern cause, yet was fastidiously objective in writing about the War.  I tumbled to that right away in his commentaries in the Burns series.  He reminded me of a mother whose son is in prison for awful crimes that she does not deny.  Even so, she loves him and can always come up with an anecdote about something funny or praiseworthy that he did before “he went down that road.”

As I said, I can’t wait to get into this massive tome.  I’ve always been like that.  When I was 16, I got into Thomas Hardy for some reason, even to the point of actually reading “Jude the Obscure,” much to the amazement of my father.  I liked to read dense, long works, which is still true today.  For instance, I am one of the few people I know who actually read and enjoyed Yukio Mishima’s “Sea of Fertility” tetralogy, which consists of four lengthy novels tracing one protagonist from 1912 to 1975.   When I was younger, I think it was the joy of getting into a world where I never wanted it to end, and I was sad when it did, and I had to say goodbye to all those characters I had come to love (or hate).  Now, it’s a bit different.  Added to the prior feeling is a new overlay, which is that long, dense books are an affirmation of my intent to live longer than I though I would.  That is, no one with a diagnosis of 3 months to live is going to order Shelby Foote’s “The Civil War!” 

~ Tom