Announcement: Speaking engagements in the next two weeks (November 2016)
I would like to invite you to come to one of my presentations. I’m scheduled to speak six times in the next two weeks. Below is a list of dates…
The politics of pain: An 1871-style Iowa stump speech
Six years after Appomattox, the Civil War was an emotional “live wire” in Iowa. Republican candidates for office tapped into the continuing agony, and they condemned Democrats with great vigor…
Dig a little deeper in the well: A review of Reluctant Rebels: The Confederates who joined the Army after 1861
For the past six years, I’ve asked myself, “Why would someone leave a nice state like Iowa and serve the Confederacy?” Seeking insights, I read James M. McPherson’s masterful book,…
If you help my child, you help me: Jefferson Davis’s 11th-hour mission
Pressing on through severe facial pain and “unutterable griefs,” Jefferson Davis wrote his farewell speech to the U.S. Senate. His personal struggles in January 1861 (after Mississippi seceded) foreshadowed the…
“When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail”: A review of Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton
Many Americans can picture the “devoted patriot” Edwin Stanton, close to Lincoln’s bedside as the president lay dying. After Lincoln breathed his last, a stoic Stanton reportedly said, “Now he…
Practicing the arts of war: From central Iowa to a Confederate armory
Confident and versatile are two words associated with West Point graduates. One such man protected Des Moines and ran a Confederate arsenal during his career. Georgia-born John C. Booth graduated…
Johnny on the spot: A review of Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief
Jefferson Davis was a lifelong friend of George Wallace Jones, one of Iowa’s first U.S. Senators (and father of two Confederates from Iowa). Even more than that, Jefferson Davis read…
“Black Hawk” bond: The intertwined lives of an Iowa legislator and his “servant”
The Union defeat at Bull Run shocked many Iowans. In contrast, Iowa State Legislator James H. Williams had “the biggest drink of brandy” to mark “the glorious [Confederate] victory.” Two…
Fence posts and scholarship — A review of To Live and Die in Dixie: Native Northerners who Fought for the Confederacy
Historical research and scholarship remind me of putting up fence posts the old-fashioned way. Gripping a post-hole-digger, a person presses down, making it bite into the soil. Repeated turns strain…
Lincoln in a new light: An Independence Day special
Abraham Lincoln had an incredible journey. Two of his speeches show how far he came in his thinking about this country. Lincoln, the revolutionary In January 1848, Congressman Abraham Lincoln…