Chronological List of Works
Chronological List of Works Discussed in Entertaining History 1885 The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant 1890 “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce 1895 The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 1915 Birth of a Nation directed by D. W. Griffith 1936 Gone With the Wind (novel) […]
Read more...Bobby Horton and “The Kennesaw Line”
by Chris Mackowski For my Entertaining History piece on the song “The Kennesaw Line,” I had the pleasure to interview musician Bobby Horton. I’ve interviewed Bobby before, and he’s always a lot of fun to talk with because it’s obvious he’s having so much fun doing what he’s doing. While I excerpted from that interview […]
Read more...God and Generals: A Conversation with Jeff Shaara
by Chris Mackowski The opening of Gods and Generals had all the hype and excitement for my daughter Steph that the Super Bowl creates. This was The Big Event. Stonewall Jackson on screen, larger than life—as if he weren’t that big already. So on February 21, 2003, we bustle off to the movie theatre in […]
Read more...Driving Dixie Down
By Patrick Vecchio My most in-depth lesson in American Civil War history began on July 28, 1973, even though I didn’t realize it. That’s the day I heard a band called The Band perform along with the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band at the Summer Jam in Watkins Glen, NY. I was there […]
Read more...Introduction
from Chris Mackowski, ECW editor-in-chief: The genesis of this project began with some research I did as part of my doctoral work on Civil War-related literature. Writer John Vernon—whose novel The Last Canyon I especially recommend—was kind enough to guide my studies and give me wide latitude with the texts I chose to explore. That […]
Read more...The Civil War in Music Videos
by Dan Welch I often hear a refrain that’s probably familiar to most of you: “Children today, younger generations, are not interested in the American Civil War.” However, if pop culture can teach us anything, it is that the blanket statement above is just not accurate. The biggest influencers of popular culture remain movies, music, […]
Read more...The Delicious If: MacKinlay Kantor’s If the South Had Won the Civil War and Alternative History
by Stephen Davis 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 o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863; the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid out and ready in the woods . . […]
Read more...The 2nd South Carolina String Band
Chris Mackowski [1] Joe Ewers stands on the stage and plucks one of the strings on his five-string banjo. His slouch hat sits at a rakish angle, and a pair of blue tassels, so faded that they look gray, dangle over the broad brim. He plucks, twists a knob to get the instrument in tune, […]
Read more...Literature
“The real war will never get in the books.” — Walt Whitman, Specimen Days * * * Chris Mackowski: “Gods and Generals: A Conversation with Jeff Shaara“—Web Exclusive Stephen Davis: “The Delicious If: MacKinlay Kantor’s If the South Had Won the Civil War and Alternative History“—Web Exclusive * * * ECW […]
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