1861: A Civil Awakening

We had an excellent Meetup! Great book suggestions. Everybody came prepared. Discussed and then chose four books for the next Meetups. Decided to alternate Meetup places, every other time with Barnes & Noble.

Meeting Places: Yuniku, Panera (at 7 PM), Captain Brian’s, IHOP, Perkins,
Alternate monthly at Barnes & Noble, Sarasota, 941-923-9907 Christie, 6 PM, call in advance
Meetup Fee: currently $15 per month, but will clean out inactive deadwood members. Will discuss an annual $10 fee, depending on active membership.

Current Book Schedule
Perfect Weapon by David Sanger
Being Wrong
Autonomy by Lawrence Burns
Where the Water Goes by David Owen

"Goodheart, a historian and journalist who will be writing a column on the Civil War for the New York Times online, makes sophisticated use of a broad spectrum of sources for an evocative reinterpretation of the Civil War's beginnings. Wanting to retrieve the war from recent critics who dismiss the importance of slavery in the Union's aims, he reframes the war as "not just a Southern rebellion but a nationwide revolution" to free the country of slavery and paralyzing attempts to compromise over it. The revolution began long before the war's first shots were fired. But it worked on the minds and hearts of average whites and blacks, slaves and free men. By 1861 it had attained an irresistible momentum. Goodheart shifts focus away from the power centers of Washington and Charleston to look at the actions and reactions of citizens from Boston to New York City, from Hampton Roads, Va., to St. Louis, Mo., and San Francisco, emphasizing the cultural, rather than military, clash between those wanting the country to move forward and those clinging to the old ways. "