Sorry for making this one, but they’re both fairly basic questions- 1- I’ve always seen comical things related to peoples fake knees or bad knees acting up in bad weather and felt there was no truth to it until my grandmother(not exactly one to lie-fundamentalist pentacostal(sp?) no offense) began complaining of such things happening, anyway, what I was wondering is if there is any scientific proof behind it…
2- however is a much simpler question, I was simply wondering(if anyone here knows much on the subject) what you dopers feel is the most expansive or useful book(or text or whatever) on the Civil War and where I could access this(or perhaps purchase a copy)
Well, I can’t say much solid about the weather thing. I do however know plenty of folks who complain about the same thing you mention. You must remember that there are stranger thinga out there than are not only known, but imaginable.
If you check your PBS listings, right now there is a rerun of Ken Burns’ Civil War It’s 11 hours long but is it ever worth sitting through! It is based on the book of the same title by ** Shelby Foote**
I always go where it’s free first. And as this book is a Documentry I imagine the local library has a copy of it.Next for my cheep butt would be a few well placed phone calls to the local used book store.
Hopefully, someone will come around who can help you a bit more than I. Best of Luck
Though Burns did use Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative as one of his sources; there were others. However, Foote’s is one of the best – comprehensive and elegently written.
I’m not sure exactly what you want to use this book for, but if it doesn’t have to be a single book, and you’re into serious research, then I’d suggest looking at the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies (they’re both part of the same set). Most large libraries should have at least a partially complete set on hand. I say ‘serious research’ because this series tends to be
very long
and
very tedious reading (I won’t go quite as far as saying boring).
However, it remains extremely detailed and comprehensive. I’ve used it several times for research. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in that, it can at least point you in the right direction. There’s also an accompanying atlas that is very useful.
“None Died in Vain” is a really decent one volume popular history of the Civil War. It covers all the major and most of the minor battles, has good biographical information on the major military and political figures, and is written for the reader with no prior knowledge. (The author, Robert Leckie, has written popular histories of all American wars.)
On a more salacious note, The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War, by Thomas Lowry, is actually a very well written extremely well researched scholarly account of sexual activity by CW soldiers. It contains everything from lovely erotica written by soldiers and their wives to detailed accounts of how syphilis altered the course of some battles until the U.S. Gov’t regulated prostitution in many areas. It’s also good for the Civil War buff and the, ahem, lay reader.
Some very interesting bits have been added on the case of the Civil War question-as for the official records thats a pretty good idea I don’t think we’ve tried at all yet and a few of the books seem like they would be quite useful as well however for those of you wondering I guess I’ll give my somewhat inadequate reasoning for this one:
My father- a man who clearly takes his hobbies quite seriously- is a hobby-geneaologist(sp… sorry) and somewhere along the way(one would assume) he came across our relatives who were here during the civil war(he’s traced us back an amazing distance for the time he’s worked on it- something around 15 generations, but maybe closer to 20) anyway, that not really being the point, he read into it(this was quite some time back) and got very interested in it, so much so that he will without pause say it is his favorite thing to use his time learning about, however, because of his work(still working-for the same company since it began-its now called Nortel) he can’t really spend his time looking through libraries and isn’t exactly knowledgable enough-so far as purchasing things on the internet goes- to go looking for these things, so, in a basic sense- I’m looking for these books to satisfy the needs of a hobby-civil war researcher, and infact one of the biggest civil war history fanatics I’ve met thats never been to a reinactment.
Anyhow, that was alot to type-for a mildly inadequete answer, but figured you might want to know- to be honest, for his taste it can’t really be too big, I’ve seen this man sit around and look at microfilm for more time than I’d sit and do almost any one thing- and clearly enjoy every moment of it, however things which a copy of could be purchased would be best- although it doesn’t cancel out the rest…
In general, we prefer that when you have two unrelated questions you should start two separate threads. Only the question about joints and the weather is really a General Question with a factual answer. The question about Civil War books would do better in Cafe Society. I invite you to start another thread there for that topic.
Quite true, thank you- and I’m suprised I missed that one Cecil did, its worded odd but I’d figure it would’ve still found joint, must have been my mistake somewhere along the way .) oh and as for the questions I really wasn’t going to ask the Civil War one- but for some reason I did anyhow and felt it was a good enough idea at the time to not edit it out-however had I found that article by Cecil this post would be almost unnecessary .)