The very nice people at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College invited me to give a talk about Sand Creek, and C-SPAN broadcast the debacle live. So if you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to watch me looking very uncomfortable and fumbling for words, you’re in luck. Here’s a link to the talk (which I will never, ever, not in a million years, watch).
Ari Kelman
Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of History at the University of California, Davis
Nice talk….you are no doofus!! Wait…… lattes, arugula, Volvo….liberal…. maybe you are !!!
No seriously, it was an excellent talk but I have a question about your position that the CW was a War of Empire. I’m not sure exactly what that term means but I believe your main point was that the 1860 election was about slavery specifically as it affected the western territories and thus empire. I would buy into your thesis if the two sides had two dif positions on whether or not to expand westward. It seems to me that it was more a question of how to and not whether. Perhaps the how to significantly impacted the whether……. I’ll be interested in hearing more.
Thanks!
Chuck
Omg, Ari, you are so wrong! I was never more taken and impacted.
QVC owes you one for the turquoise, Native-American-made, bracelet I had to have. Sigh.
I am still reeling from the slap in the face of realizing how my respect for our American history has been tragically shaken. Trust me, my friend, I watched it over and over after taping it on Book TV. Tears and so much anger. Hissing about it to others only brought it closer and made my own ignorance about our history more obvious as well as the fact that ALL NATIVE Americans have suffered much and on many levels.
You added a layer to my own fictional characters that just makes them more believable. I was so touched and hung up on the Code Talkers that your research hurt and hit me even harder!
Your book is on my Kindle. Your decision to avoid specifics during your talk was both intelligent and admirable. I thought you came off as very knowledgable and articulate! Cut yourself some slack! You’ve got at least one very grateful fan for life. 🙂