Friday, July 2, 2010

Lorien Foote

Lorien Foote is associate professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas and the author of Seeking the One Great Remedy: Francis George Shaw and Nineteenth-Century Reform.

Her new book is The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor, and Manhood in the Union Army.

Earlier this week I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
I’ve been traveling a lot recently and asked some friends to lend me books that would be good reading to pass the time in airports and train stations. One gave me Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett, a novel that is part of a fantasy series set on Discworld. The hero is a coward, the barbarian horde is comprised of geriatrics, the wizards are at a university where neither students nor professors attend lectures, and the revolutionaries spout slogans about moderate change and preserving tradition. I thoroughly enjoyed this bit of light reading. It was funny, quirky, and yet oddly insightful and satirical about the real world. I’ve never read anything quite like it. The only problem with reading this book on public transportation was the embarrassment of all the stares I received on the multiple occasions it made me laugh out loud.
Visit Lorien Foote's faculty webpage, and read more about The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor, and Manhood in the Union Army.

--Marshal Zeringue