History prof. quoted in AP story about tweeting the Battle of Gettysburg re-enactment

Michael Birkner, the Benjamin Franklin Professor of the Liberal Arts and professor of history, was cited in a July 7 Associated Press story about the intersection of social media and history.

From the AP:

But some historians say they don't mind adding social media to the mix, especially if it helps bring one of the nation's most famous battles to life for a new generation. After all, war correspondents of the day filed dispatches using that newfangled device called the telegraph and using the shorthand of dots and dashes necessary for Morse code.

Michael Birkner, a history professor at Gettysburg College, compared tweeting to the 1950s CBS television program "You Are There," which portrayed current reporters talking to historical figures to bring history to life.

"There would be Mike Wallace asking Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, 'General, how does it look?'" Birkner said. "We want to be in the middle of the action. It's just a different technology from a different era."

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