The Future of History

Not sure how much longer this video will be available (for free), but I wanted to pass it along before 'tis but a passing memory on the waves of time. It was very useful to me while explaining our country's "fratricidal bloodletting," as my one-time teacher Robert Dallek was wont to call the War Betwixt the States. Yes, very useful when attempting to introduce such a complicated topic to no less than ninety-five members of the "Millennial Generation" and their notoriously short attention spans.

The casualty stats come off a bit fuzzy, but the music (from Ken Burns' The Civil War, naturally) is gorgeous. Maybe there was some brilliant computational algorithm that allowed the video's creators to put it together quickly, but I doubt it. On the contrary, the graphic strikes me as a very well-researched and - when you reflect on the attention paid to minute territorial shifts on the front lines & the synchronicity of the various demographic components - very valuable classroom tool. I am far from being any kind of Civil War scholar. In terms of "buff"-ness, I'm afraid I'm at the ninety-pound-weakling end of the scale. But I can tell you that in four short minutes, my perspective was clarified. In fact, this video has contributed to my understanding of that time period only slightly less significantly than Buster Keaton.