I study the Civil War because of my mother. It\u27s a simple truth.
My Mom, more than anyone else in my life, taught me to be the historian that I am. She is present in so much of what I do when I process the past.
I lovingly refer to her as my idiot-filter. She was a theology major in her undergraduate training, studying comparative religions. I\u27ve never read her thesis, I know it\u27s in a cupboard at my parents\u27 house, but I vaguely remember that it was centered around comparing Christ with the other messianic figures of his era. She looked at the world as a game of measures, sizing up one thing and another, looking for the moving parts, seeking the humanity in what we call the divine. [excerpt
