How to Write a Book and Influence History

If you think about it, biographers and historians have a huge impact on history.  Case in point is McCullogh's book about Truman, that no one considered first rate until the biography.  Another example is how Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about Lincoln's cabinet which many compared to Obama after taking on Clinton.   Of course this is important to history teachers as these books often end up as one liners in our textbooks and essential knowledge guides.

All of this makes me wonder how historians do it with thousands of pages of notes.  It was one thing to write my book completely online as it is only 150 pages, but what about much longer ones.  One day last spring I stumbled on Erik Larson's blog (as I was reading Dead Wake; he also is well known for Devil in the White City) and asked him how he does it.  Initially he told me he was too tired from his book tour, but as you can see here, he finally settled down and wrote a very detailed answer - in case you are interested.