Mar 20, 2005

Noted Here and There ...

by Cliopatria

My colleague, KC Johnson, was not the only blogger taking some punches this past week. Eugene Volokh took them from many directions for his"Something the Iranian Government and I Agree On." Tim Burke's"Volokh's Bloodlust" and Mark Kleiman's"More on Volokh, Torture, and Retribution" were among the most thoughtful rejoinders; and, by the end of the week, Volokh was convinced that his original position was incorrect. Really, the whole discussion was a display of the best that blogging can do. Volokh is simply one of the most intelligent bloggers on the net and to watch the debate and see a person of his brilliance make that turn is an amazing tribute both to him and to his intellectual peers.

At Chapati Mystery, my colleague, Manan Ahmed, has so much to teach us about Muslim worlds, south Asia, and American visitation policy. Go read his"Get the Modi Out." Follow his logic. It's even-handed, tough, and, it seems to me, powerfully persuasive. He's also conducting a fairly vigorous debate in comments over there.

I'm especially fond of the History Blogs of my colleagues, Manan Ahmed's Chapati Mystery, Tim Burke's Easily Distracted, Miriam Burstein's Little Professor, Mark Grimsley's Blog Them Out of the Stone Age, Sharon Howard's Early Modern Notes, Rob MacDougall's Roblog, Caleb McDaniel's Mode for Caleb, Nathanael Robinson's Rhine River, Hugo Schwyzer's [well, what of it?] Hugo Schwyzer, Jon Dresner's other group blog, Frog in a Well, and the Dictionary of Received Ideas, where Nathanael and Sharon also blog. But, you really ought to take a look at Cliopatria's History Blogroll, where we continue to make additions on a regular basis. Among the newer additions to it that I especially like are Lisa Roy Vox's Apocalyptic Historian, eb's delayed reaction, barista, and two group blogs, Horizon and Maroonblog.

Finally, there is a current tiff over blogrolling. But, just in case I failed to make my point over there, do not go visit Unfogged, who's been on Cliopatria's blogroll for over a year and continues to resist her allures; but do go visit Adam Kotsko's The Weblog. The gang over there is twisted, but they have a sensible blogroll.

More Comments:

Sherman Jay Dorn - 3/20/2005

The physics archive is a wonderful example of what online distribution of research can accomplish. But it's not as quick as what you may assumeI wonder what the average time from beginning of project to uploading is. Also, I understand there's a built-in lag time after uploading before a paper is released to the world.

Jonathan Dresner - 3/20/2005

I don't think I'm making overly strong claims about blogging: I think these questions need to be addressed at a number of levels, from full-scale research to short-term blogging. I've argued elsewhere that changing minds is generally a gradual process, and I hold to that. My mind doesn't change quickly, and I'm much more likely to be convinced by a peer-reviewed project than by a blog. But there is some value in the "distributed intelligence" of blogspace that is not easily replicated by the glacial peer-reviewed pace: the model of the hard sciences, which have developed strong mechanisms for on-line distribution of research results while still holding to a rigorous peer-review process, comes to mind. Not everything on-line is a blog and not all bloggers are equal authorities on every subject.

Sherman Jay Dorn - 3/20/2005

I find it fascinating that there's a contrast this morning between your discussion of the broader arguments surrounding the Volokh torture/execution blogspat/debate, on the one hand, and Jonathan Dresner's discussion of context and factuality. I disagree with what he implies (and elsewhere says) about blogging and factual claims, but it's important we evaluate the different intellectual tasks that bloggers take on.