Shelby Foote

If we are wise, we learn from the past - at least that is the conventional wisdom for why it is that we should study history. But this adage, as wise and reasonable as it sounds, is in fact quite difficult to follow, and not because we are not wise enough to learn from the past. Often we are. But at least as often we find ourselves put into positions in which our knowledge of the past is insufficient to prevent us from making the same mistakes that our forebears have made. This is perhaps never so true as during war.

Shelby Foote's long book about Shiloh, one of the most important and gruesome battles during the Civil War, helps us to understand the feelings and motivations of a small group of soldiers as the choices that they make and the conditions of their historical moment lead them to meet on this battlefield. The book contains some sense of the overall strategies involved in the battle, and how its outcome affected the rest of the Civil War. But this is very much not a typical piece of military history told from the point of view of the generals. This is the story of ordinary people, all of whom know that they may die, but who are co

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The Battle of Shiloh .... New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Foote, Shelby. The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random House, 1958. Garrison Jr., Webb. .... (2440 10 )

Causes of Civil War .... Brock, William R. Conflict and Transformation. Middlesex, ENG: Foote, Shelby. The Civil War A Narrative Fort Sumter to Perryville. .... (2011 8 )

JOHNSON, RECONSTRUCTION POLICY AND IMPEACHMENT .... 1877. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Foote, Shelby. The Civil War A Narrative Red River to Appomattox. New York: Random House, 1974. .... (2313 9 )

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Category: History - S