I periodically check Savas Beatie's Under Contract page to see what's in the pipeline. New Civil Warrior Sean beat me to it, but it deserves repeating that Edward Cunningham's dissertation The Shiloh Campaign, 1862 will finally be published (with some kind of assistance by Timothy Smith and Gary Joiner). I am really looking forward to this one. I first heard about Cunningham's monograph back in May when David Woodbury directed me to the transcripts from his Civil War Forum author interviews.
[if you're interested, this is how you can get them per Dave: for now you can find them as if they were messages. Click on "advanced search (below the "Find Messages" box. Then, search for keyword "Transcript," and set the date field back to "beginning of time." That should bring up 30 or so text files, all entitled "A Conversation with xxxxx."]
The interview with ranger Stacy Allen praised Cunningham highly, particularly for his treatment of the battle's first day. He also mentions "The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged," (out-of-print) by Maj. David W. Reed. According to Allen, Reed's book is the best tactical treatment of the battle. Maybe we can get a new edition of Reed someday as well.
Drew,
ReplyDeleteInteresting stuff. I had been looking into getting a copy of that dissertation straight from the University it comes from earlier this year. I forget now which and it's been several months since I looked into it. I'll have to hold off and support Savas Beatie once again.
Brett
Brett,
ReplyDeleteI think it was LSU. I was thinking of trying to get a copy myself but never got around to looking into it. I've always wondered what quality (printing, binding, paper, etc) you get when ordering dissertations from whatever outlets are available. I imagine it's highly variable and relatively expensive no matter what.
Drew
Cunningham did his dissertation at LSU under T. Harry Williams. I wonder how Savas Beatie got around the copyright issue? It was my understanding that Cunningham had died and had no direct heirs.
ReplyDeleteArt,
ReplyDeleteMaybe Gary can tell you. I would be interested in how it was done, too. Another question I have in general is do universities own the "rights" to dissertations? Can they sell it without needing the author's permission or paying him royalties?
Drew
As far as I know universities do not sell copies of dissertations. That is done through University Microfilms.
ReplyDelete