Sherman’s War

Thank you so much for publishing “Sherman’s War.” Victor Davis Hanson’s writing humbles. He seduces us by allowing us first to imagine his home in central California, then to see how it would look were it wiped out by a William Tecumseh Sherman. Here Hanson is just a regular guy, telling a story next to me on a doughnut-stand stool, sipping coffee. Before long I’m transported—which is what all effective writing should do—to another time and prodded to use my noodle to actually think, by God. Finally, he touches the heart through the intellect, a magical trick master writers know and the rest of us envy. To interpret, as Hanson does, is to give a gift.