I’ve been doing something revolutionary of late: recording meetings in person. Occasionally I did this in the WAUG studio at Augustana College, with a colleague who walked over to join me. But I’ve never actually taken my laptop and Blue Yeti microphone to someone’s office or place of business, sat down with them, and had […]

I've been doing something revolutionary of late: recording meetings in person. Occasionally I did this in the WAUG studio

at Augustana College, with a colleague who walked over to join me. But I've never actually taken my laptop and Blue Yeti microphone to someone's office or place of business, sat down with them, and had a conversation. I'm curious to see if you notice the difference, not just in quality of sound, but in quality of interaction. I strive in this podcast not to interview the other person, but to have a conversation about the history that they've done. An conversation, I think, can capture a little of how historical thinking is done by historians. Ideally you should feel that you are the third person in the room, listening to two of us talk things through.

Today I talk through things with one of my favorite people with whom to do so, Brent Tarter. As you will hear, Brent has been with the Library of Virginia, the commonwealth's equivalent to the Library of Congress, for a long time. In the course of his labors he has mastered a knowledge of Virginia's history, all of it, that is really unparalleled. We talk over a few things: why elites remained powerful for so long in Virginia; why the success of slavery after 1830 gives the lie to the widely believed notion that Virginia and the upper South were in economic and social decline from 1830 to 1860; and the difficulties of doing genealogy.

[Apologies for the sound, and the late drop of the conversation: I hit the wrong button and Brent's office was much noisier than I thought it would be, requiring Jon Ruddat to do some extra audio magic.]

* The Library of Virginia

* Brent Tarter, "The New Virginia Bookshelf" (VMHB 104.1, Winter 1996)

* Dictionary of Virginia Biography

* Books by Brent Tarter

 

Richard II’s Treasure James Meredith The Maria Mitchell Association Film of Anwar Sadat’s assassination  George Bancroft, History of the United States

* Richard II's Treasure

* James Meredith

* The Maria Mitchell Association

* Film of Anwar Sadat's assassination 

* George Bancroft, History of the United States

Today's conversation is about battles, but much more than that. It is a conversation about how we interpret history, often not interpreting it so much as imposing our will upon it. And it's a conversation about the modern world, and our fascination with genius, and with finding quick and sure answers to difficult problems.

My guest today is Cathal Nolan, Professor of History at Boston University, and we discuss his book The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost. Nolan believes that few battles are actually decisive, meaning that victory in battle does not necessarily determine who wins a war. It follows from that, he argues, that wars are rarely short. But, by focusing on model of decisive battles won by military genius, modern people (politicians, generals, and citizens alike) have deluded themselves time and time again that "the boys will be home by Christmas." But stalemate and attrition are as much a feature of modern warfare as it was in ancient or medieval warfare. Victory always requires suffering and immense sacrifice on the part of those who would be victorious. And no general, however brilliant, can change that.

 

Today’s conversation is about battles, but much more than that. It is a conversation about how we interpret history, often not interpreting it so much as imposing our will upon it. And it’s a conversation about the modern world, and our fascination with genius, and with finding quick and sure answers to difficult problems. My […]

* What happened after Lewis and Clark returned

* The First Flight Around the World

* Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery

* Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower Upon History, 1660-1783

What happened after Lewis and Clark returned The First Flight Around the World Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower Upon History, 1660-1783

Following the creation of a federal constitution in 1787, the work was not even halfway completed. The Confederation Congress, the government of the United States, sent the new constitution to the states to be ratified. While Delaware passed it swiftly and unanimously–which is why it calls itself “the First State”–nearly everyone else engaged in […]

Following the creation of a federal constitution in 1787, the work was not even halfway completed. The Confederation Congress, the government of the United States, sent the new constitution to the states to be ratified. While Delaware passed it swiftly and unanimously–which is why it calls itself "the First State"–nearly everyone else engaged in vociferous debate. These ratification conventions are some of the most fascinating political events in American history.

Perhaps none excels Virginia's ratification convention for sheer drama. As Lorri Glover discusses today, all of Virginia's greatest figures then resident in the commonwealth–the notable exception being George Washington–were present. Leading those opposed to ratification were two of the finest orators in Virginia or in the rest of America, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee. Advocating the new constitution was the weak-voiced, 5'4" James Madison, who compared to the two titanic figures opposing him was relatively unknown.

What followed then is the subject of our conversation, and of Lorri Glover's book The Fate of the Revolution: Virginia Debates the Constitution (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016).