Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 historian and novelist who wrote The Civil War: A Narrative

The Civil War: A Narrative

The Civil War: A Narrative is a three volume, 2,968-page, 1.2 million-word history of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote. Although previously known as a novelist, Foote is most famous for this non-fictional narrative history. While it touches on political and social themes, the main thrust of...

, a massive, three-volume history of the war. With geographic and cultural roots in the Mississippi Delta

Mississippi Delta

The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...

, Foote's life and writing paralleled the radical shift from the agrarian planter system of the Old South

Old South

Geographically, Old South is a subregion of the American South, differentiated from the "Deep South" as being the Southern States represented in the original thirteen American colonies, as well as a way of describing the former lifestyle in the Southern United States. Culturally, the term can be...

 to the Civil Rights era of the New South

New South

New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, after 1877. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.The term has been used...

. Foote was relatively unknown to the general public for most of his life until his appearance in Ken Burns

Ken Burns

Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...

's PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 documentary The Civil War

The Civil War (documentary)

The Civil War is a documentary film created by Ken Burns about the American Civil War. It was first broadcast on PBS on five consecutive nights from Sunday, September 23 to Thursday, September 27, 1990. Forty million viewers watched it during its initial broadcast, making it the most-watched...

in 1990, where he introduced a generation of Americans to a war that he believed was "central to all our lives."
Foote was born in Greenville, Mississippi

Greenville, Mississippi

Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...

, the son of Shelby Dade Foote and his wife Lillian Rosenstock.