Sandburg in the Civil War Monitor

[L Verge]

Great posting, Rob. And, I love this paragraph: In 1943, James G. Randall, the preeminent academic scholar on Lincoln during the mid-20th century, wrote to Sandburg lamenting how the stigma of being an academic hurt his publishing opportunities. "I seem unable to overcome the stigma of being a professor," Randall wrote. "Walter Kiernan said the other day in his point-sized column: 'What this country needs is a good five-cent history book.' The public needs our products, but we don't seem quite adequate in putting it across to the millions."

I fear the history field still needs fewer "professors" and more good writers who know how to hold a reader's attention. The good, hard details can certainly be conveyed in less boring text than what some of our current historians employ. I feel we need to interest the "unwashed masses" more than ever these days, and professorial drone is not going to cut it.