When I was teaching writing classes, I repeatedly emphasized to my students three principles of good writing. I summarized each principle...

One truth I repeatedly observed during my years as a teacher was that avid readers tend to be better students than nonreaders. They...

Today, December 7, marks the eighty-first anniversary of the simultaneous and coordinated Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Guam, Wake...

Thanksgiving is past. Christmas is just around the corner. And the new year is following close behind. That means it's time to start...

I don't want to seem as though I'm beating a dead horse, but in today's post I'd like to share some more quotations from Barbara...

One of our daughters recently asked my wife and me to accompany her to a library book sale. She was looking specifically for good...

McFarland Publishing, the publisher of my book Confederate Cabinet Departments and Secretaries, just announced a great holiday deal! You...

I'm excited today to present a guest post by Joy Neal Kidney, who published her first book at age 75. Since that time, she's published...

An article I was reading recently mentioned the U.S. amphibious landings near Casablanca in North Africa, and immediately I recalled the...

I wanted to share the following short (~7 min.) YouTube video that provides some much-needed motivation for those of us who sometimes...

Often, I've regretted not having access to a plethora of private documents--letters, journals, photos, etc.--on which to base my study of...

Genealogies can sometimes seem boring, especially if you don't know the families whose lineages are being charted. Sometimes even that of...

Three storms in three distinct places in the past two weeks gave me lessons in comparative meteorology--and life. The first storm was...

Because I read a lot, for not only the research I do on my various on-going writing projects but also for pleasure and presentations, I...

Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable aspect of my work writing about historical subjects is doing the research. It isn't getting the idea or...

Being an American with affinity for our constitutional republic, I am certainly no fan of monarchy. But the nearly 24/7 media coverage of...

One's books can reveal a lot about someone. After all, we are, in a sense, what we read. Whenever I'm watching a television interview of...

I've never been accused of being a workaholic. Although I'm usually quite disciplined and focus intentionally on the tasks I have before...

A good writer should always be learning new words every day. After all, words are the tools of a writer's trade. As important as is the...

In last week's post, I shared about a good book I had read recently, a collection by memoirists on how they wrote their memoirs and what...