Our historians are leaders in their field, authors, podcast hosts, documentary filmmakers and sought-after experts for articles, movies and TV shows.
But who are they really? To give you an inkling, we’ve modified the Proust Questionnaire for our historians. Popularized by Marcel Proust, this set of questions is said to reveal a person’s true nature.
Today, historian Kyle S. Sinisi, Ph.D. answers our Historians Proust Questionnaire. Dr. Sinisi is a professor at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina and currently serves on the Advisory Council for the National Civil War Museum and the Board of Directors for the Friends of Charleston National Parks. He leads the This Hallowed Ground and Mississippi River Campaign Civil War tours.
Kyle Sinisi Answers Our Historians Proust Questionnaire
What is your idea of perfect happiness on tour?
Having the opportunity to talk about history with the guests during any down time and group meals. There is so much history relevant to any tour that cannot be covered at every stop or on the bus between stops. Group receptions and meals offer a great opportunity for me to talk more history and answer questions that normal tour stops and bus rides don’t usually allow.
What is your greatest fear on tour?
Bathroom stops. You can never have too many bathroom stops on a tour.
What is the quality you most like in a historical figure?
Moral courage
Which words or phrases do you most overuse on tour?
Just one more thing….
When and where were you happiest when on tour?
Anytime I can illustrate a battle at a dinner or lunch using salt and pepper shakers, cups, knives, forks, and glasses.
Which talent of a historical figure would you most like to have?
Equanimity
What do you consider your greatest achievement on tour?
Finding the exact locations where the ancestors of guests served on battlefields ranging from Normandy to Gettysburg.
If you were to die and come back as a historical figure, who would it be?
Robert E. Lee
In which period of history would you most like to live?
I’ve never had a desire to live in any historical era. I know too well the dangers of the past. Although I would like to go back in time and watch the unfolding of hundreds of events, I’ll take a hard pass on living that dream.
What is your most treasured possession?
Wedding ring
What is your most marked characteristic as an historian?
I’d like to think diligence.
What do you most value in your guests?
Intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn about the context of events great and small.
Who are your favorite writers?
Douglas Southall Freeman, Samuel Eliot Morison, James Hornfischer, James Scott, Rick Atkinson, and Daniel Boorstin. There are a host of others, but what unites them all is that they wrote, or still write, history that is both thoughtful and readily accessible for a popular audience.
Who is your hero of historical fiction?
Sam Damon from Anton Myrer’s Once an Eagle.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I don’t think I identify with anyone from the past. I have never really tried to look at the past to find someone who was either like me or who experienced a life like mine. However, I tend to gravitate to people in the past who possess virtues that I admire. That would include men as outwardly different as Robert E. Lee and Grover Cleveland.
