by Anna-Lisa Cox The extraordinary story of Covert, Michigan’s radical integration and racial equality has long fascinated me, and, like any author, I could not help but be changed by my years of research into its history.  Yet, my experience with the contemporary community of Covert has also profoundly affected me.  I still remember visiting Covert many years ago to conduct an oral history interview.  I was to meet with the elderly descendants of some of the first black pioneers to settle in Covert.  I was in graduate school at the time, and had just finished taking a seminar on … Continue reading An Integrated Intimacy

The Cowboy Girl: The Life of Caroline Lockhart By John Clayton “This larger-than-life Western woman deserved a good biography, and John Clayton has written one.”—Bill Croke, The Washington Times Read earlier praise for the Cowboy Girl Continue reading More Praise for The Cowboy Girl

Living Blue in the Red States Edited by David Starkey “Among the contributors are novelists, poets, essayists, and literature professors, all with passion for their regions and elegance in expressing their anger, frustration, and longing to close—or at least understand—the political divide.”—Booklist “The red state/blue state divide, which has come to dominate poll projections, is not as well defined as election-eve pundits claim. . . . [David Starkey] shows that a sense of community often trumps politics, and the similarities between neighbors outnumber their differences.”—ForeWord “[R]eveals the sensitivity, openness, and respect which the best (blue or red) minds can offer. … Continue reading Praise for Living Blue in the Red States

The Enigma Woman by Kathleen A. Cairns “Cairns tells her story with considerable sociological and psychological acuity. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this tale is how the cut-and-dried, seemingly heartless justice system of the 1930s ultimately produced a punishment that was just and enlightened and would generally satisfy today’s more liberal attitudes toward spousal abuse and homicide.”—The Atlantic Read earlier praise for The Enigma Woman Continue reading More Praise for The Enigma Woman

by Warren C. Robinson

Why does one write a book? Each author and each book probably has its own separate answer. But, in the case of Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg I can honestly say I starting writing what ultimately became the book out of curiosity. I have been reading about the Civil War since I was given a book on it when I was about ten years old and the fascination has never faded. And one reason for this was that the authors and sources themselves disagreed on some important points and the innocent non-specialist was left puzzled. So, you had to become a "specialist"—that is, read everything you could find and go as far back as possible in the original source material—to decide what you thought about a given issue.

Gettysburg has always been of particular interest because I lived in Pennsylvania for many years, while I was teaching economics at Penn State, and visited the battlefield many times. JEB Stuart comes into view because my father’s family was from Virginia and JEB Stuart was his special hero.

Thus, Gettysburg and JEB Stuart came together in my reading and musing about the war and that battle in particular. I started reading the old sources again and some new ones and then, like the academic that I was (am), making notes to myself as I went along. Pretty soon I had a paper, some thirty pages long,         

Continue reading “Background on JEB Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg”