Allan Eckert's brand of history takes some getting used to. It reads very like fiction, but is actually fact dressed up in the style of a novel. There's an intimacy in the effort which is often lacking in today's historical writing. Yet the approach poses problems.
For example, he leans heavily on dialogue to tell his story, making ample use of whatever historical conversation remains in archives but also adopting the practice of what he terms "hidden dialogue"—putting quotation marks around material not initially recorded as dialogue but reported as having been said or heard or thought after an event.
This is a free excerpt of 99 words. There are 318 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Eckert, Allan W. 1931–: Critical Essay by James Nelson Goodsell Access Pass.
