I listen to a number of podcasts as I travel on my rounds and one of my favorites is Civil War Talk Radio hosted by Professor Gerry Prokopowicz of East Carolina University. Each week Gerry, as I like to think of him, brings authors and other Civil War scholars to his show for an interview about their book or specific topic. If you are a serious student of the Civil War or just someone who likes history, this show is for you.
The show takes a break for the summer so I have been using the time to catch up on the ten years of archived episodes, I have been binge listening, and I have heard some fantastic interviews however, one of the best thus far was with Jake Boritt the man behind the PBS Documentary The Gettysburg Story.
Jake is the son of retired Gettysburg College professor and author of the book The Gettysburg Gospel, Gabor Boritt and grew up on a farm next to the Gettysburg Battlefield so you could say Jake grew up with the battle in his back yard.
The film was produced in and around the Town of Gettysburg and with cooperation and support from the National Park Service filmed on the battlefield itself. He uses drone based cameras to give the audience a view of the battlefield never seen before. Narrated by Stephen Lang, known to Civil War buffs as Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett in the movie Gettysburg and as Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the movie God’s and Generals.
The film aired on Public Television in 2013 and is now available on DVD and for download from the website The Gettysburg Story. Do take time to check it out, it is worth it.
