To the Sound of Distant Guns, Part 1
The first show in my American Civil War series is out now!
To the Sound of Distant Guns is out now! You can listen here.
I was floundering.
Too many fascinating subjects, too little time to study them. What would the next Compendium show be, I wondered.
I picked up Shelby Foote’s little history of the War, and the process began. There were no grand trumpets, no great ceremony. It just sort of… happened.
I suppose I jumped before I looked. I did the same thing with the Vietnam shows, and it seemed to work out.
Three months later, TO THE SOUND OF DISTANT GUNS Part 1 is out in podcast feeds, and you lovely folk get to tell me if it’s any good (I hope it is!).
As I’ve studied the war, I’ve realized that the Civil War is a culture war as much as anything else. I think there may be a good argument that the causes and results of the Civil War are far more important than the war itself. Perhaps that seems obvious to you, but at the outset of my reading, battles and flags and souls snatched too early seemed as much of the point as the arguments made before shots rang out at Bull Run.
I decided this first show would attempt to tease out the why of the whole thing. Why was the country prepared to bleed itself white? Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Antietam, and the Wilderness don’t mean as much taken by themselves, but as members of a larger tapestry, in proper context, they become intensely important.
I hope you enjoy the show—I’m rather proud of it. If you do, I would humbly ask that you tell a friend! Podcasts thrive on word of mouth, and a kind word in the right ear multiplied across time could turn this little history show into something bigger than we both could ever imagine.
Enjoy,
–Josh