Tuesday, August 31, 2021

THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove

Refinished Mo 8/30/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first finished on We 11/19/97. This was a book that was headed for the trash, but I'm sure glad I saved it. A great read, but I kind of disagreed with the premise.

Would Southern leaders drop the 'segregation' issue so easily? I doubt it, and with the way things are these days, I really doubt it. 

Premise: A rogue South African military unit from the future gives the Confederate army thousands of AK 47 to defeat the Union. When Robert E. Lee learns that these guys are coming from the future to permanently stop the liberation of Blacks, he is able to convince the more conservative elements of his government. I really doubt that this would happen because it's not believable that they would so easily give up their deep rooted predjudice. 

Link to the book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_the_South


I've ordered a couple of more books by Turtledove from Amazon.

According to the book, Lee had always sought to end the tradition of slavery. Is this true?

In the novel Nathan Bedford Forrest runs for president of the Confederacy agaisnt Lee. Forrest has a group of men called 'Forrest's Trees'. Someone in the novel says that it reminds them of Lincoln's 'Wide Awakes'. This is an actual group that followed Lincoln in his run from president in 1860. They carried torches and wore rubber ponchoes or capes.

The Rivington men name their hotel 'Notthehilton'.

'AWB'- America Will Break; the symbol for the Rivington men

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