if shelby foote's thought a historian, what is he. at the a biographer?y. >> charlie: the novelistic quality that he brought was the simple fact that he wanted to tell the stories of the lives of the people who are on the ground. that was the war he wanted us to appreciate, feel. >> he wanted us to understand in the way homer did. homer told the story of the great war of the ancnt world through the lives of the leaders and of the men, right? i mean, we don't get a great political disposition about the causes of the trojan war in the iliad. what do we get? we get the rage of the achilles, we get the body of hector. that's a great story, that's great history. clearly there are the issues about whether something is overly novelistic and therefore you wandered into invention. props the better word for what foote did is cinematic. because novelists -- you see it, you feel it. >> charlie: i got you. he used words to create a visual impression. >> a raw gusty day. he took, there are no footnotes. >> charlie: no, none. >> he didn't have a secretary or even an edi

shelby foote, the reason i know shelby foote is that his son, huggie, the names are strange in the deep south, we were in a rock band together, and basically did everything we could do to prevent shall be foote from finishing his 6,000 pages trilogy of the civil war. we were cranking up the jimi hendrix and pink floyd and there may or may not have been slow in the room. i'm not at liberty to say, but we certainly were having a good time and huggie would be latched in some sort of feedback rivalry and shelby would knock on the door and say huggie, turn that racket down. i'm working on mathematics and we were like right, sure. of course he was working on mathematics and he was working on this amazing 6,000 page trilogy which took years for me to understand and absorbent commesso coming back to memphis, then this is just this extraordinary city perched on the racial fault line the capitol of the mississippi delta, the capitol of rock-and-roll and blues and of course beals street is there, of course all this, you've got to start there, but it's also one of the very few cities of any size in

shelby foote agrees with this account of it. , it depends if you are really big brand partisan -- and great admirer of grant -- you tend to come down on the side that cadwalader is making this up. if you are being a little more rational about think like there must be something to it. at any rate i put it in there with a caveat there are those who say that this is not -- this is not the way that it happened. cspan: your site bruce in the book and shelby foote and then thomas and some others. >> guest: james mcpherson. cspan: james mcpherson -- >> guest: and the lloyd lewis great biography of sherman which was the biggest eye opener to me. a wonderful book. cspan: who do you tend to think as the best work on this of war of all? >> guest: i'm still a bruce catton man. if your sympathies are with the north come to this to you can't really approach totally objectively. your sympathies tend to be with a more to kind of tend to be a catton man and if your sympathies tend to be with the south you tend to be a shall be foote man. i think i rely more on catton than anyone. they're all good. csp

and also shelby foote, another one, the late shelby foote, who's considered the ku klux klan as part of the french resistance so that's farfetch. i don't know if the ignorance go from top to bottom. >> host: we're going to start with monica from stark view, mississippi. good afternoon, monica. >> caller: good afternoon. >> host: please go ahead. >> caller: yes, i was calling about what ishmael said about academia. and i was in total agreement and i can't wait to rush out and read his book on barack obama. i actually return to get my doctorate because i thought i could go into academia and expand my knowledge in it, and also offer knowledge on business and now i'm in academia and i feel that it is very rigid thought and outside views are not all that welcomed. and i know what i have to offer. >> host: monica, what are you studying or what do you want to study? >> caller: well, i'm study business management. >> host: okay. all right. at what point do you agree with ishmael reed on academia? on the segregation integration issue or the reading failure? >> caller: well, he mentioned that

to blame the tea party, you have to say maybe there's a tea party academia or society, and also shelby foot, also is considered a great historian. he compared. ku klux klan with french resistance. that's farfetched. >> host: let's take some calls. we're beginning with monica in stark view, mississippi. good afternoon, monica. >> caller: good afternoon. >> host: please, go ahead. >> caller: yes. i was calling about what ishmael said about academia, and i was in total agreement, and i can't wait to rush out and read his book on barak obama. i actually returned to get my doctorate because i thought i could expand my knowledge and also offer knowledge on business, and now i'm in academia, and i feel it's rigid felt, and outside views are not all that welcomed, and i know what i have to offer is valid, however -- >> host: what are you studying? >> caller: business management. >> host: all right. what point do you agree with ishmael reed on academia? the reading failure? >> caller: well, he mentioned that academia is very rigid and not open to outside ideas, and we tend to continue to study the s