Notes from the Field

by Cliopatria

Every time Ralph is away, I want to mess up the cushions at Cliopatria. I just know he keeps immaculate house.

At the Future of the Book, there is the commenting on the President's Iraq Speech [btw, can someone find out how many total Iraq speeches have been give so far by President Bush?]. NYT totally copied the FotB folks in their own line-by-line analysis. I wish to draw your attention to the way these two sites spliced the text to allow commenting. Digitally minded academics have much to adapt from both of these technical presentations.

Speaking of digital historians, the finest blog has a great reading list for a Digital History field. Someone give this man an award - oh wait, we just gave him a Clio!

Elizabeth brings to our attention the Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility after 9/11: A Handbook for Scholars and Teachers by the Middle East Anthropologists. Among endorsers of the report are historians Marc (sic) LeVine (UC Irvine) and Rashid Khalidi (Columbia). As Elizabeth notes, it is largely commonsensical [that word] and"useful as a reminder".

Question: Is Biography back?

comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Nonpartisan - 1/13/2007

I HOPE it's back. It's always been one of my favorite ways of both reading and doing history.

S J - 1/13/2007

You're doing a great job, Manan.

Jonathan Dresner - 1/13/2007

I know what you mean: my own work is pretty old-fashioned by "cool kid" standards.

Jonathan Dresner - 1/13/2007

My first impression of the Handbook is that they use the word "assailments".... I know, I just used the word "biographize", but that wasn't a publication.

Then there's the section on mentoring (emphasis added for humorous effect): If you have been assigned a mentor, he/she may be able to provide advice on this matter, although we have found some evidence that administrators can use mentors to subtly curtail junior faculty
members academic freedom. Be aware of this possibility, but do leap to conclusions about the motivations behind certain actions or comments.

I also note that the AHA did not respond to their requests for assurance about coming to the aid of faculty under fire.

Manan Ahmed - 1/13/2007

"We've still got stacks and stacks of great men and women unbiographied"

That's exactly why I asked. Kinda want to take on one such project but also don't wanna be snickered at by the cool kids.

Jonathan Dresner - 1/13/2007

I wasn't aware that biography had ever "left," but we non-western types aren't always up on the "latest and greatest" do's and don'ts in historiography. We've still got stacks and stacks of great men and women unbiographied [I'm not looking it up to see if it's a word], not to mention all those wonderful secondary and obscure characters who can be so illuminating.

I'm a sucker for autobiography as a classroom reading, but I've always shied away from straight biography for some reason. My social historian reflexes, I guess.