Not Much Tonight: A Weekend Writing Doctoral Assignments

At Gettysburg in 2016

"Historians of every generation, I believe, unless they are pure antiquarians, see history against the background - the controlling background - of current events. They call upon it to explain the problems of their own time, to give to those problems a philosophical context, a continuum in which they may be reduced to proportion and perhaps made intelligible." Hugh Trevor-Roper

This has been a very busy week. I wrote a couple of articles and wanted to write more, but due to reaching and grading where I work and writing a bunch of assignments for my current doctoral class, coupled with a lack of sleep I haven’t been able to write all that I wanted on this platform. I will write more this week even though I will be going with my students to Gettysburg on Friday, and coming home on Saturday. When I was on the faculty of the Joint Forces Staff College from 2013 to mid 2017 I led Staff Rides to Gettysburg at least once a quarter and have a draft trilogy of the battle to complete.

I will also be working on the second unit of this doctoral class, but as of tonight unit one is complete. My doctoral studies in Strategic Leadership will be my “terminal” degree. It will be my last degree or kill me in the process. Now it is a quest to finish it, hopefully by 2026. It has certainly cut into my historical research and writing.

Tomorrow begins with physical therapy for my back then going home to get work done at home while preparing a couple copies of my book Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Religion and the Politics of Race in the Civil War Era and Beyond to new founding or annual subscribers to my work.

Being a historian is a calling and it has a great responsibility for those who study and write about it. Historian Fritz Stern noted, “The historian must serve two masters: the past and the present”.

Anyway, until tomorrow. All the best and as always watch your six.