Tone is an author's attitude toward a subject. In this passage, "Men at War: An Interview with Shelby Foote," the speaker is an acknowledged expert on the Civil War and has an educated and reverent tone toward the war and its impact on the nation. Shelby Foote makes use of colloquialisms, grammatical constructions, anecdotes, and diction in his interview to enforce this tone.
             This interview contains multiple colloquialisms that help define educated and reverent tone of the speaker toward the Civil War. One example of this rhetorical device is Foote's repeated use of the word 'you,' like when he says "...you must remember.." and "...you see..." This repetition of 'you' gives the reader a feeling of actually being a listener. If a reader feels as if they are listening they would pay more attention and be more inclined to agree with the opinions, especially if they know the speaker is an expert on the subject. Another example of colloquialism that gives the reader a feeling of being spoken to directly is when Foote says "...Which was a pretty satisfactory answer..." in response to a quote he used. These uses of colloquialisms help expose the tone through their way of grabbing the reader's attention.
             Shelby Foote uses the transition of grammatical constructions when referring to the United States before and after the Civil War to further express his tone. The grammatical construction he uses for the US before the war is "The United States are..." which suggests that the nation is a collection of individual states. The construction the speaker uses to follow the Civil War is "The United States is..." which shows that the nation is united. These grammatical constructions give a very powerful example of the impact the Civil War had on America which expresses the expert's reverence. Foote says that the war changed the way in w...