Influences

I wanted to take a moment to thank two people who inspired me to do this. Prof. Mark Grimsley of The Ohio State University has a unique blog. Mark uses his blog in an effort to explore ways to assist in the evolution of academic military history. It’s called Blog Them Out of the Stone Age. Mark focuses on the role that military history plays in the academic world, and also offers interesting insights into his own personality and what drives him. I have always admired and respected his courage in putting himself out there in such a public fashion. When I told Mark that I was thinking about doing this, he was full of encouragement.

Dimitri Rotov maintains another especially interesting blog called Civil War Bookshelf. Dimitri has very strong opinions about what does and does not make a good Civil War book, and he’s not afraid to share those opinions. I may not always agree with those very strong opinions, but I always respect Dimitri’s opinions on things.

These two bloggers always impress me with the regularity with which they post, and the consistent quality of their posts. They have inspired me to attempt this, and I can only hope that the things that I post are as well considered and as what they post.

Brett Schulte’s blog is another one I read regularly, although it was only started a couple of weeks before I launched mine. I have posted a couple of guest posts on Brett’s blog and will continue to do so from time to time. Drew Wagenhoffer’s blog launched at the same time that Brett’s did. I read Drew’s posts every day, too. My blog was already in the works when Brett and Drew launched theirs, so I can’t honestly say that they influenced me to do my own, but I neverhtless appreciate what they post.

Thanks to all of you. I hope that I meet your expectations.