Dennis K. Berman is best known for writing about the Mergers & Acquisitions industry for The Wall Street Journal. Indeed, he has been one of the paper's most prolific and highly visible staffers over the past year.
But might Berman be a secret civil war buff?
Our NewsBios researchers have uncovered an article that Berman penned in the July/August 2001 edition of American Heritage magazine that strongly hints that Berman may have more than a passing interest in the Blue v. Gray.
Berman's "Creating the Ultimate Civil War Resource" tells the story of the man behind www.civilwardata.com, a web site offering millions of personnel records pertaining to soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
"It's all tedious work, and it can get especially maddening for [founder Richard] Dobbins when he's trying to make out frilly handwriting preserved on aging microfiche," Berman wrote. "Still, he grinds on. For him, the job is something of a higher calling, a public works project of the Digital Age."
NewsBios is only speculating, but we wouldn't be surprised if Berman first pitched the article about Dobbins -- a former fund manager -- to The Wall Street Journal, which wasn't interested at the time. So Berman may well have shopped it to American Heritage.
What difference does any of this make? Only this. Berman is one of the nation's 100 most influential business journalists. For those who encounter him in a professional capacity, there is no such thing as knowing too much about his thinking and motivations.
