Greg Strandberg's Blog - Posts Tagged "montana"
Writing Montana History
I’ve really enjoyed getting back into writing Montana history again. I got going this past weekend writing biographies of the three leading women candidates for the nomination this Saturday.
That spurred me to get back to 1900 to 1930 in the state, and I was able to find a lot.
For instance, the Spanish-American War. Hardly any of the secondary sources mention this period, yet Montana sent twelve companies of men in three battalions, which totaled around 1,000 men. About 100 died over there in the Philippines and not much was mentioned after that.
I found a great old source book called Campaigning in the Philippines, which was written in 1899. Each state had to add the history of its own units, and Alexander Laird did a great job for Montana.
I’ve already got 28,000 words on this book, or 100 pages. With pictures (each book has 100 or more) the total will go up even further.
Volume 3, Braves and Businessmen, was more than 300 pages and I think this next volume will be close to 400 if not over. Already today writing about the Panic of 1907 took up a lot of space.
Braves and Businessmen: A History of Montana, Volume Three
That spurred me to get back to 1900 to 1930 in the state, and I was able to find a lot.
For instance, the Spanish-American War. Hardly any of the secondary sources mention this period, yet Montana sent twelve companies of men in three battalions, which totaled around 1,000 men. About 100 died over there in the Philippines and not much was mentioned after that.
I found a great old source book called Campaigning in the Philippines, which was written in 1899. Each state had to add the history of its own units, and Alexander Laird did a great job for Montana.
I’ve already got 28,000 words on this book, or 100 pages. With pictures (each book has 100 or more) the total will go up even further.
Volume 3, Braves and Businessmen, was more than 300 pages and I think this next volume will be close to 400 if not over. Already today writing about the Panic of 1907 took up a lot of space.
Braves and Businessmen: A History of Montana, Volume Three
