In a recent entry at Civil War Memory, Kevin Levin says…well, I honestly don’t know exactly WHAT he’s trying to say, as you will soon see below. I take exception to some of Kevin’s comments, and my reply to his entry appears as below:
Kevin,
I wasn’t surprised to see your post this morning. Any comment I make on my blog about my personal preference for books and articles focusing on strategy & tactics seems to end up over here. Your entry, as usual in these cases, seems to agree with me on one hand while essentially calling me ignorant for choosing not to study race relations and gender relations during the Civil War. This makes it utterly impossible to attempt a rebuttal with any chance of success because I have no idea what exactly you are arguing for or against. I don’t know if you for some reason believe that my blog posts are specifically aimed at you personally or at any group you claim to represent, but I can assure you that this is not the case. I create blog entries on the Civil War because it is a hobby of mine, not because I’m attempting to put together some thesis arguing that race and gender relations are unimportant. In fact, that thought could not be further from the truth.
Nowhere in the part of my entry that you quoted do I ever say that the social aspects of the war are unimportant, nor do I “dismiss” them. In fact, I argue the opposite, and we essentially agree that there is a need for and importance in the study of race and gender relations during the war and the effect this had on the memory of the war. Where we disagree is essentially whether or not myself and others like me who enjoy tactical studies should be interested in the social aspects of the war. I’m not an academic. I simply enjoy reading about the aspects of the war I choose to read about, and I thank you for acknowledging that this is perfectly acceptable. However, what is left unsaid (and maybe I’m reading too much into your words, as you seem to have misread mine in my original blog entry) is that I am in some way arguing against the study of race and gender relations, et al, in campaign and battle studies, and that my level of sophistication and that of others like me who prefer the standard tactical studies of battles and troop movements is beneath those who DO study other aspects of the war. In essence you are speaking out of both sides of your mouth, saying that it is okay to have preferences, but that people who do not find the social aspects of the civil War interesting are in some way ignorant for having particular preferences. Notice I said “interesting”, NOT “important”. This is a key difference, and one which you seem to have a hard time recognizing. The fact that I do not consider these aspects of the war interesting DOES NOT mean that I find them unimportant. As I have said in the past, my sister is a recent undergraduate of the University of Illinois in French History, and she will be attending Penn State in the fall. Her interests also include the importance of gender studies in history. From her, I have gained an appreciation of if not necessarily an interest in the topics she studies.
Your entire post, from the title to the comments button, smacks of thinly veiled condescension. In particular, I don’t appreciate being lumped in with the second poster, who is making an argument against something, whereas I am simply stating my preference for tactical studies in their current form. Nowhere did I say that there shouldn’t be battle and campaign studies that look at race and gender relations, the role of citizens, etc. I am simply stating, so that others who read this understand where I am coming from, that I would typically choose not to read those studies. Nothing more, nothing less. I agree that there are certain aspects of the war that I know little about. But guess what? I don’t care because those subjects are uninteresting to me. Again, this does not mean that I consider those topics unimportant. It’s not like I’m taking your Civil War class or that of a Professor at some University. Because I’m not, I am free to choose whatever books interest me and read only those, apparently to your unending annoyance. Why you seem so opposed to this idea while at the same time explicitly saying in your entry that you are not opposed is confusing and deceptive on multiple levels.
Other than this comment, which will be appearing on my blog as well, I hope this is the last time we need to have a discussion about this. We essentially agree, but you continually infer in these snide blog entries that I am in some way disagreeing with you. I can only continue to scratch my head in mild amusement when you essentially try to argue about a topic in which there was never any disagreement in the first place.
Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online for the latest on the Siege of Petersburg!
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