Member Review Shelby Foote

[Marco 1975]

I have his interviews saved in a file. Whenever I just need a little soothing listening, I crank him up. He gets some things wrong, but he was pretty meticulous in research and tried to present an accurate view of the war. So called historians don't even agree on everything.

There are people one is angry with them by telling wrong things. I was'nt when I realiced that he did so too. I only wondered why, that were known facts, he should have known too

 

[JulieWeathers]

There are people one is angry with them by telling wrong things. I was'nt when I realiced that he did so too. I only wondered why, that were known facts, he should have known too

I'm not which facts you're referring to.

There are huge debates on many things, why Stuart was late getting back to Lee with information before Gettysburg, for instance. Mosby finally found Lee's order regarding that, which should have laid it to rest, but it's still being debated today.

Anyway, Foote didn't get everything right. No one does, but he was pretty good and he had a danged good understanding of many facets of the war and the men.

 

[Choatecav]

I'm not which facts you're referring to.

There are huge debates on many things, why Stuart was late getting back to Lee with information before Gettysburg, for instance. Mosby finally found Lee's order regarding that, which should have laid it to rest, but it's still being debated today.

Anyway, Foote didn't get everything right. No one does, but he was pretty good and he had a danged good understanding of many facets of the war and the men.

Great response....
BTW, JulieWeathers, I am curious as to the origin of your avatar. Is it a photo of an ancestor? She's very beautiful.

 

[Marco 1975]

You might enjoy this old thread from 2013......

William Faulkner on Pickett's Charge | Gettysburg

"For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two oclock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already...

civilwartalk.com

Thank you, I enjoyed it

I'm not which facts you're referring to.

There are huge debates on many things, why Stuart was late getting back to Lee with information before Gettysburg, for instance. Mosby finally found Lee's order regarding that, which should have laid it to rest, but it's still being debated today.

Anyway, Foote didn't get everything right. No one does, but he was pretty good and he had a danged good understanding of many facets of the war and the men.

I put my thread in a translator and it is different to what I wanted to say. Not a big difference but it gives a different meaning ( I said before that I sometimes choose the wrong words and try to explain makes it just get worst...).
There are some mistakes in his civil war narrative, I'm not looking for things like that but sometimes you just know there is something wrong. You are right, nobody does everything right and I really enjoy listening to Mr. Foote

 

[Kurtlg]

David McCullough worked with Bruce Catton at American Heritage. He said Catton didn't like to be called a historian. He preferred to be called a writer. I wouldn't be surprised if Foote felt the same about his own work.

 

[Choatecav]

David McCullough worked with Bruce Catton at American Heritage. He said Catton didn't like to be called a historian. He preferred to be called a writer. I wouldn't be surprised if Foote felt the same about his own work.

I read somewhere that he commented along this line. Not so much about being called a writer, but he shied away from the term "historian" as it implied an expertise to everything said.

I've always thought of him as being confident, but at the same time humble. I think that just adds to his appeal.

 

[Manassas 1861]

One of my favorite ACW related quotes was from Mr. Foote. It was written in a book of his about the siege of Vicksburg, 1863.

The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads."

 

[Jamieva]

My favorite in the series is " bitter April ", my absolute favourite youtube Video. He is on Foote's level, I could listen both for hours. With my next book-order is a Robertson book for sure

Let me know if you need a suggestion.

 

[Marco 1975]

Let me know if you need a suggestion.

I thought to get his book about Jackson, maybe there's a better choice? I heared he wrote ~20 books

 

[Marco 1975]

I saw a 3 hours program called " book tv " . people could ask Foote questions, very interesting. I'm sorry, I have no idea how to share it but you can find in on YouTube put " Shelby Foote " in the search

 

[Jamieva]

I thought to get his book about Jackson, maybe there's a better choice? I heared he wrote ~20 books

That would be my top recommendation. I also loved his book on the stonewall brigade i read as a teenager

 

[Marco 1975]

That would be my top recommendation. I also loved his book on the stonewall brigade i read as a teenager

 

[Marco 1975]

That would be my top recommendation. I also loved his book on the stonewall brigade i read as a teenager

Then I'd rather take that about the Stonewall-Brigade, would get a book of them, Robertson is a good source for that, I think

 

[Philip Leigh]

@Sheltowee , I found a couple more Shelby Foote novels on Hoopla. I'm not familiar with these, but I just added them to my favorites list so I can keep track of them and maybe give them a listen.

Follow Me Down

Audiobook - Follow Me Down

A stark tale of a crime of passion, Follow Me Down tells the story of Luther Eustis, a respectably religious Mississippi farmer who runs off to a deserted island with a young girl and brutally kills her after a three-week idyll. Why did he do it? ...

www.overdrive.com

Love in a Dry Season

LOVE IN A DRY SEASON | Kirkus Reviews

Dirty and dull- but shrewdly contrived and skillfully executed so that- while you loathe practically every character in the book, you believe in them. A sordid triangle,- Amy, a nymphomaniac and a rotter, her blind husband, Jeff, who enjoys contriving reasons for display of jealousy and...

www.kirkusreviews.com

Tournament (Mr. Foote's first novel)

TOURNAMENT | Kirkus Reviews

The rise and fall of Hugh Bart of the Mississippi Delta, this is a life portrait of a man to whom success came smoothly, quickly, though without bringing happiness. He acquired an old plantation, Solitaire, and with it as wife, Florence, of social if impoverished prominence. Early in his career...

www.kirkusreviews.com

September, September (I think this was Mr. Foote's return to fiction after the Civil War trilogy - it is not on any of the 3 digital services to which I have access)

SEPTEMBER, SEPTEMBER | Kirkus Reviews

Twenty-five years after Shiloh, historian Foote (The Civil War: A Narrative) returns to Southern fiction and to his multiple-viewpoint narrative technique, here applied—with mixed results—to a kidnapping in Memphis, September 1957. The nappers are a scabrous white trio: taciturn old-pro Podjo...

www.kirkusreviews.com

I've read love in a dry season. It's classic southern Gothic.

 

[Marco 1975]

Dr. Allan Guelzo is a good speaker too. He's from Gettysburg, one interesting speak is at Washington & Lee College about Robert E. Lee, he was writing a book about Lee

 

[121st PA Vols]

Dr. Allan Guelzo is a good speaker too. He's from Gettysburg, one interesting speak is at Washington & Lee College about Robert E. Lee, he was writing a book about Lee

Agreed. Dr. Guelzo, formerly of Gettysburg College is a persuasive orator with an informative and powerful presentation style. I attended a few at the college. Others are online.
Below is a link including two videos for those unfamiliar with the man. He's also a good guy with a fun sense of humor.

Cultivating a first-class faculty: Prof. Allen Guelzo receives prestigious award

A highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

www.gettysburg.edu

 

[TallTallMan]

Shelby was a great man. He has been slandered as a pro-Southern superneoconfederate, when he was actually a balanced and fair guy, who dished out criticism and praise in equal amounts (even Lee and Jackson!). Everything his detractors use against him are based on the selected quotes in the Ken Burns documentary and they obviously never bothered to read the trilogy (he never even says anything Lost Cause in the doc to begin with). Also note he gets attacked for being "biased" when the basis of the "general consensus" of your average CW social study is from the simplistic Good vs. Evil POV, betraying the whole point of history to begin with.

The only thing about Shelby I didn't like was that he kind-of just repeated the sameoldsameold ideas of other historians (Freeman, Catton and Lewis, for one), without a whole ton of new analysis, but at least he presented it in the best way.

We owe him everything.

 

[TallTallMan]

There are some writers who write in the " lost cause view " , I would'nt say that Foote is one of them. He is also fair to the union-side. James Robertson is so similar, one can feel his sympaty for the South and also for the union. I can't find the right words for what I want to say, I hope you know what I mean

Bud Robertson's lean towards the South is a bit more obvious than Foote's in my opinion, but everybody has their bias, and it doesn't color his interpretation the way it does with the deranged Dr. Clyde Wilson or, for the other side, Al Mackey and Atun-Shei.

Welcome to the forum! Get ready to see the elephant!

 

[TallTallMan]

Foote himself admits as much. And he explains why he chose not to use footnotes in his narrative.

Well, at least he didn't do like Sandburg, where he confessed he let his "emotions go before his analysis"!

 

[Marco 1975]

Bud Robertson's lean towards the South is a bit more obvious than Foote's in my opinion, but everybody has their bias, and it doesn't color his interpretation the way it does with the deranged Dr. Clyde Wilson.

Welcome to the forum! Get ready to see the elephant!

Thank you