You can be sure that folks who see Civil War history in black an white extremes know little about it. And while I have always seen the Southern States as being among the most undemocratic in outlook of all the states in the Federal Union, I did not let it color my writing on the subject that was done mostly some 20 years ago.

Trump’s platform of hatred has completely distorted the Civil War as unbiased history, and I suspect that in todays political climate it shall remain distorted. I, however, believe if one were to read my book, Apprentice Killers: The War of Lincoln and Davis, one might come to understand the, at that time, perspective of the principle leaders on both sides, who were often more at war with each other than the enemy.