18 January 2006
Wednesday 18 January 2006 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Philip Dodd explores the enduring fascination with the American Civil War, talking to guests including the acclaimed novelist EL Doctorow. The writer discusses why he has chosen the war as the subject of his latest book, The March, and reveals why he believes the struggle between North and South is still reverberating today.
Programme Details
It's said that the two most important events in the shaping of America have been the Depression and the Civil War. Both left terrible damage in their wake…. both continue to resonate in contemporary social attitudes and political sentiments… and both also seem to have a truly tenacious grip on the imagination of Americans.
Within the next few weeks alone there will be three books which take the war as theme and setting – among them E.L.Doctorow’s latest novel, The March. There’ve been films too of course… it would be hard to forget Gone with the Wind or indeed to think of the American south without at least some sort of response to David O Selznick’s fairytale Tara… then there’s been the massive and masterly documentary on the war which Ken Burns made for television.
More recently too social historians have been changing our understanding of the conflict by focussing on the roles played by black Americans and women. In Night Waves this evening Philip Dodd and his guests will be examining the causes of the war, its continuing power over hearts and minds and how – nearly a hundred and fifty years later - it still determines how Americans think of themselves. That’s Night Waves with Philip Dodd here on BBC Radio 3 at nine thirty this evening.
Further information:
The March by E.L.Doctorow is published by Little, Brown on Thursday.
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicksis published by Bantam Press next month
Canaan’s Tongue by John Wray is published by Chatto and Windus
