The good folks at HarperCollins sent me a copy of America’s Prophet.  The latest book by Bruce Feiler, America’s Prophet is an interesting read.  Feiler takes a journey through American history and looks at times and places when American’s have looked to Moses for inspiration.  America has indeed been a Christian nation and it is not surprising that during troubled times American’s should look toward Biblical characters for hope, guidance, and the aforementioned inspiration.  Feiler, however, has noticed that among all the Biblical characters that Americans could turn to, Moses comes out as number one.  Washington, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, to name a few icons from American history, have all been compared to Moses.  American slaves sand about Moses and Cecil B DeMille turned him into a screen legend (thanks in part to Charlton Heston).

Now Feiler is not an academic historian.  Feiler is a good storyteller who has created a book that reads like part travel journal, part memoir, with history and interviews thrown in for good measure.  His writing style keeps your interest.  His research seems solid – the bibliography contains standard works by the leading historians in their field (James McPherson and Gabor Borritt as Civil War refrences for example).  There is noting about the book that is radically outlandish.  In fact I would say that Feiler has created a well written work about a subject that has received scant attention.  If you have an interest in religion’s relationship to American culture and history, I’d say give America’s Prophet a read.

Hello Readers,

My apologies for not posting much in the last month.  Work, school, job search, an anniversary with my lovely bride of one year, and some travel have indeed kept me busy.  I do have so much to write about: two book reviews, a site visit to Cumberland Gap, and discussions from class are all forthcoming.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Lincoln Symposium I went to (link here).  While I was in the neighborhood I thought I’d stop by the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.  OK, so I have to admit, I didn’t really know a whole bunch about the guy.  I mean I knew that he was military governor of Tennessee and eventually Lincoln’s Vice-President, became President after Lincoln was assassinated, and then fell out of favor with his own party and was impeached.  That was about it.

There was more to the man than met the eye.  He held an unwavering loyalty to, and strict interpretation of, the Constitution.  Growing up without much education he didn’t learn to read until after he was married.  A tailor by trade, he developed a passion for politics and was an Alderman, Mayor, State Senator, US Congressman, Governor of TN, US Senator – and this was all before the CiviL War broke out.  If you ever get the chance to learn more about Andrew Johnson by visiting this site or picking up a biography I encourage you to do so.  You won’t be disappointed.

The good folks at Osprey Publishing sent me a review copy of their new book American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics by Sean McLachlan.  I plan on reading it this weekend and will post a full review later, but I did thumb through the book and here are some first impressions.

Let me start off with Osprey books in general.  Truth is I am a visual person married to an artist, therefore: I like the visuals in Osprey books.  Maps, period photographs, and art depicting uniforms adorn most Osprey titles.  And it helps me learn, so I naturally like them.

A brief perusal through the book shows the usual visuals.  I also noticed that many of the major personalities are covered (Morgan, Forrest, Quantrill, etc…), there is a section for the impact of the guerrillas on the war and a section of the aftermath.

The “Selected Bibliography” contains mostly standard works on the subject, though I would have added William Trotter’s Bushwackers to the list.

My first impressions are indeed favorable.  A more detailed review is to follow.

OK, so I took some liberties with the title, but I had a great morning.  This morning I drove on up to Greenville, TN to Tusculum College for a symposium “Lincoln’s Living Legacy: 200 Years of Interpretation”.  Simply put it was excellent.  The following is a brief review of the panel and their presentations.  There is no way I could do the presenters justice, so I am simply going to report on my “takeaways” from their presentations.

First up was Thomas Mackie director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University.  My biggest takeaways revolve around the origins of Lincoln’s memory.  The public memory of Lincoln began with the eulogies after his assassination.  It was brought out that the public at that time had a “social duty” to mourn.   These tributes gave birth to a form of civic religion built around Lincoln.  Everyone wanted “a piece of Lincoln” and places he lived, things he touched took on a near religious significance.  Southern portrayals of Lincoln, however, were still unkind ranging from everything from showing his as a buffoon to monster.  To demonstrate just how pervasive Lincoln is in American society it was mentioned how impossible it would be to remove all references to Lincoln.

Next was Peter Wisbey director of the William Seward House.  The presentation opened with a biographical sketch of Seward.  I admittedly don’t know a whole lot about Seward, so everything was new to me.  For example, I didn’t know that Seward looked at and gave suggestions on Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address.   Or that he originally held Lincoln in low esteem, but that their relationship grew and evolved into one of mutual trust and respect.  So much so that when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation the only witnesses were William Seward and his son.  It was also brought up that Seward was seen in the South as the “evil” behind the Lincoln administration.

Charles Byrd, a volunteer interpreter from the Carl Sandburg Home spoke on the fascination Sandburg had with Lincoln.  As a young boy Sandburg, hearing stories of the Civil War from veterans, became interested in the war and consequently Lincoln.  So much so that he wrote a 6 volume biography for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes.  Both Lincoln and Sandburg loved words and stories; both were also champions of the “common” man.

Chris Small founder of The Lincoln Project led a Q & A session with the panel and audience.

I am sure that my Readers Digest-like summary of the presenters’ comments do not do their talks justice but do provide a snippet of the symposium.

I signed up for my 3rd class at American Military University today.  The American Revolution in Context starts on October 5.  I am sure  that I’ll be writing about the course on here so stay tuned!  The course description reads:

This course is a comparative study to demonstrate the importance of the historical context of any great military event. Context includes all aspects of a society or culture and in this case, 18th century British and colonial American political and constitutional philosophies, social norms and societal structure, economics, religious concepts, and foreign and diplomatic policy. Students examine issues such as divergent historiographical opinions on the degree of American constitutional conservatism versus political and social radicalism, and the nature of the soldiery of the continental Army.

We’re going to close “Smokies Week” with the jewel of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Cades Cove.  Cades Cover is perhaps the most visited sites in one of the most visited parks in the country.  Folks love to drive their cars around the 11 mile loop in search of wildlife.  Many come looking for that perfect picture of deer or bear or the historic buildings that circle the cove.

The GSMNP is in the heart of Cherokee country (see my earlier post here).  The Park Service states that they have no evidence of Cherokee villages in the cove though it was used for hunting.  It was first settled by folks from East Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina sometime in the 1820s.  By 1900 about 125 families lived in Cades Cove.  These families built homes, churches and schools.  Only a tiny fraction of the buildings are left for visitors to see today.

In 1934 the national park was officially established.  At that time the states of Tennessee and North Carolina began purchasing land and turning it over to the Federal government.  Some of the residents of the cove sold out but some resisted.  One of the best known of the resistors was John W Oliver who fought the state of Tennessee for six years and the case went all the way to the state Supreme Court.  He lost the case and moved from the cove in 1937.  Kermit Caughron was the last resident of Cades Cove, he died in 1999.  You can read more about him here.

If you have ever camped at the Elkmont campground in the smokies you have driven right past the Wonderland Hotel and probably never noticed.  The hotel was part of the Elkmont “Wonderland Club” which was a vacation community.  The Elkmont area was at first the site of a logging camp.  Then in 1919 several Knoxvillians who had been rejected for membership into the Appalachian Club bought the site and built the hotel and several cottages.

When the park was formed the cottages were sold to the government with a lease agreement.  Most of those expired in the 90s with two expiring in 2001.  Part of the hotel collapsed and the park had to decide what to do with the structures in the community.  Some are to be restored and others documented and removed.  You can find more information on the preservation plan here.

So as I continue my celebration of the Great Smoky, today I want to talk about the Cherokee.  Unfortunately, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park doesn’t give us as much information on the original inhabitants as it could.  Perhaps the closeness of the Cherokee Reservation plays a part, I am not sure.  While the GSMNP has plenty of records of white settlements and structures in the park which it has restored, the Cherokee are only mentioned on wayside markers and in visitors’ centers.  To get the story of the Cherokee one has to head over to the Oconaluftee Reservation.  While there check out the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.  For more information on the Cherokee go to the Cherokee Historical Association website.

After driving around the Great Smoky Mountains all day and seeing log cabin after log cabin, you might be confused when you come to the Reagan place on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail.  Alfred Reagan was a bit of a jack of all trades.  He was a farmer raising cattle and crops, coffin maker, blacksmith, in 1900 or so he opened a store, and later he built a mill.  The family also consisted of six children.  Oh yeah, and the colors on the house, ordered from Sears & Roebuck.