Re: Gettysburg movie reviews?

POLK@utkvx.utk.edu
Tue, 5 Apr 1994 23:11:51 ECT

Although I would hestitate to use the film in an American survey course
(or a Civil War course, for that matter), Shaara's book would prove
suitable. When I taught the survey at James Madison Univ. I used The
Killer Angels and the students loved it. It provided a nice, late-semester
break from the usual documents books and supplementary readings. It proved
most helpful, for example, in sparking discussion of the Civil War in
general.

On a completely different subject . . . I noticed a recent discussion of
Stonewall Jackson on the net. If you want to experience the cult of
Jackson fully AND better understand his death in terms of martyrdom for the
"Lost Cause," travel to Lexington, Virginia, site of his grave. As a
graduate of the Virginia Military Institute I witnessed firsthand the
degree to which Jackson was (and is) venerated. The man still plays an
important role in the life of the Institute. And, on a lighter note, a
popular cadet story suggests that Jackson's ghost still haunts the school.

Brian E. Crowson
Papers of James K. Polk
Univ. of Tennessee
polk@utkvx.utk.edu