A Civil War Time Machine

You've seen plenty of serial fiction over the past few years. But what about serial non-fiction?

Today my friend and mentor Jamie Malanowski (of Spy, Time and Playboy fame, as well as author of the political satire novel, The Coup) kicks off an interesting series in the New York Times: weekly, real-time updates of the Civil War story... exactly 150 years after the fact.

The first installment takes place Hallowe'en 1860, a week before the presidential election, and Republican Abraham Lincoln is duking it out with Democrat Stephen Douglas. It's a very rousing read, despite the fact that you may know how things turn out. (SPOILER ALERT: Lincoln will go on to be elected president.) That's the point, though. You can tuck away your history textbooks and fuzzy memories of junior high and experience the era "live," as it unfolded.

And, I hasten to add, there's not a vampire in sight.

This is a very cool experiment; I'll be looking forward to updates each Monday.