Monday, August 3, 2009

The Shelby Foote Effect

It must have been on Academic Earth that I first heard it:

The speaker (presumably David Blight in the Civil War course) was talking about how after Ken Burns' documentary on The Civil War, women were all swooning over the historian Shelby Foote.

My mother is one of them. Let me see if I can find a picture...


Yes. History nerd with a Southern Accent.

Anyway, Ken Burns new documentary (on national parks) is coming out and
in this article, I learned that Burns himself recognizes "The Shelby Foote Effect". So for some part of the press tour he brought along the park ranger that he thinks will be the new superstar.

Shelton Johnson is the gentleman's name. And here is his quote about the old park wolves versus ranchers problem:

"When you hear the wolves are leaving Yellowstone and they are attacking someone's cattle, it's not like the wolves are getting together and saying, 'Hey, what are you doing this Friday? I'm thinking about going out of the boundary and going after Joe's sheep. Is that what you're thinking?' "

Snarky rugged park ranger? I'm in.

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