The Civil War in the Far West with Megan Kate Nelson
Guess what - there were Civil War battles way out west...I mean way out there - in the desert, west of Texas. If you did not now about this, it is most likely because your history teacher never mentioned it...probably thinking it an unimportant sideshow to the real action in Virginia or Tennessee or Georgia. After discussing her book, Ruin Nation, Megan and I look beyond the eastern, western, and trans-Mississippi theaters of the Civil War. Megan tells us the war in the far west - New Mexico territory and even California - reveals much about the broader scope of the war. We discuss:
What it means to be an "independent scholar"
Broken stuff
War in the New Mexico/Arizona Territory
The significance of the Civil War in the far West
Camels
And that's not all - Megan offers great advice for history students, a point on movie recommendation, and suggests we all read the book, This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust - so you had better get to it.