Early Modern Notes

Sometimes hotlinkers do get what they deserve.

The 51st edition of the History Carnival will be hosted by Mary Beard at A Don’s Life on 1 April.

Send nominations for recently published posts about history (a historical topic, reviews of books or resources, reflections on teaching or researching history) the submission form, or email mb127 {at} cam.ac(.)uk, or use the comments to this post.

HOSTS NEEDED from 1 June onwards!! Email sharon {at} earlymodernweb.org(.)uk if you’re interested…

Some pictures of men in suits are slightly more startling than others.

How to write about the Cricket World Cup right now? The murder of Bob Woolmer casts a shadow over everything. It is too fucking awful for words. Which, naturally, doesn’t stop the press from indulging in wild speculation and hordes of writers and blog commenters from playing amateur detectives.

And yet it has been a far more exciting tournament than we might have expected; a mixture of ridiculous, astonishing, shocking, awe-inspiring.

A few months ago predictions focused on an unstoppable Aussie procession to pyjamas domination. Yawn. But then they got beaten (three times…) by a crap one-day team led by a chap who, it transpires, can’t even keep a pedalo the right way up. The Aussies have been hit by injuries. And for all the record-breaking, they might even be beatable.

Two south Asian teams are going through to the second round, and neither of them is called Pakistan or India.

The aforementioned crap team, however, made it through the first round, which is something of a marvel. Their fans will probably get over the shock just in time to watch them crash out of the ridiculous so-called Super Eights. (Mind you, the way things are going England – captained by Monty, as by then Vaughan will have fallen over one pothole too many, and Collingwood will have managed to shock even Ian Botham by being caught high on cocaine in a strip joint – will probably be in the final. And lose. To Ireland.)

There have been kids having fun and unlikely heroes. Oh, yes, and sixes.

It’s been an unbelievable fortnight.

Carnivalesque XXV is up at Iconoclasm. Lots of ancient/medieval blog goodness.

Carnivalesque needs hosts! The next edition some time around the middle of April will be an early modern edition, and the one after that in May will be for ancient/medieval topics. Email carnivalesque {at} earlymodernweb.org(.)uk if you’re interested!

Troels Myrup is hosting an ancient/medieval edition of Carnivalesque at Iconoclasm on Sunday 25 March. Email troelsmyrup AT gmail.com or use the handy submissions form.

Also, the History Carnivals Aggregator is up and running. Subscribe to the feed to be kept up to date with news of all the history-related blog carnivals!

Six Nations finale. What an unbelievable day. Oh, Ireland, Ireland.

UPDATE: On the other hand: holy crap, IRELAND!!!

The very first History Carnival was posted here on 15 January 2005. You might, if you feel so inclined, use that one and what follows here to briefly compare the history blogosphere then and now. Quite a few of the bloggers included in that first edition are still active, although their blogs may have undergone some significant transitions since then; equally, there are a few much-missed absences. (Come back to us, Caleb!) But at the same time there are many great blogs now that weren’t so much as a twinkle in their owners’ eyes at the time.

It’s been an interesting two-and-a-bit years. I like to think, though I have no evidence for this whatsoever, that the History Carnival may have played some role in encouraging all that growth. It has of late been in danger of being overwhelmed. Perhaps in the early days a carnival host could seek (if not achieve) something like comprehensive coverage. Not for a long time now. As I’ve already mentioned, from next month, the frequency of the Carnivals will be monthly and this is likely to encourage a more explicitly selective approach. Which may or may not work: I simply don’t know what the next two years will look like.

But I’m delighted to report that I have a new helper on board, Jeremy Boggs of Clioweb, alongside my long-standing deputy Jonathan Dresner, and we should soon be launching a new-look super-duper website. We have Plans.

But enough about us. Let’s see what you’ve all been up to. (Bonus points if you can spot all the bloggers included today who were also in the 1st edition!)

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A Historian for the American People

The death of Arthur Schlesinger Jr prompted much discussion of his role and influence as a public historian, and whether he belonged to an extinct species. Noteworthy posts included Rebecca Goetz’s tribute; Rachel’s comments; a Cliopatria symposium on A Historian for the People (includes further links), which led to further comments by Rob MacDougall on The Age of Schlesinger 2.0 and by Sam Tanenhaus.

Bonus link: Bush’s Thousand Days

Teaching

More perennial concerns: New Kid on the Hallway worries about whether her marking/grading is too generous in Rates of Inflation, while at The Long Eighteenth there’s a discussion of plagiarism in The plagiarism talk and Plagiarism and the teacher-student relation.

Bonus link: the latest Teaching Carnival

Technology

It’s been a good week for discussion of the positive and negative impacts of digital technology on history. Tim Burke worried about losing the serendipitous qualities of traditional searches in Search as Alchemy. I weighed up the status of digital history and the archives. Matthew Weaver considered the concerns raised as Archives board the bandwidth bandwagon. And Bill Turkel made some more upbeat predictions about what’s Coming Soon: History Appliances.

Bonus link: Robox ’71

Women’s History Month

As might be expected, quite a few women’s history posts from a personal angle. Natalie Bennett shared some of her favourite women in history in Some women to celebrate, while Bardiac wrote about A woman I’d like to thank – for a very good reason. At Another History Blog, we were introduced to a largely forgotten woman writer, Marian Sims and Reconstruction in SC, while (just making it in from the end of February) Credo rounded off Black History Month with a post on Ida Wells Barnett.

At Walking the Berkshires, Tim Abbott took a searching look at his Ancestors in the Witch Hysteria. Elementary History Teacher acquainted us with President Wilson’s other wife.

Bonus link: the latest Carnival of Feminists

Westward Ho!

As ever, an entire cavalcade of interesting blogging on American history. The OUP blo puts the Scooter Libby verdict in perspective. JL Bell looks at Alexander Cruden, a ‘tormented genius’, and wonders if this was an 18th-century case of Aspergers. Grant Jones questioned an account of 1848. Jennie Weber revealed that she feels sorry for the man who has been viewed as the US’s worst President in James Buchanan and the election of 1856. Rick Shenkman took a look at another President in the LBJ Tapes: Two Revealing Exchanges.

Aphra Behn highlights the psychological effects of war on soldiers in PTSD and the myth of WWII. The Educational Marm tours historic cemeteries.

Caleb Crain explores the relationship between two soldiers in the 1812 War and asks: Queer or Peculiar? And at Southern Pasts, there’s a look at the (perhaps) final chapter in the story of Emmett Till: Case Closed. On a lighter note, Bob reminds us that The Cat in the Hat turns 50! And just a little humour to wind up this section, from Jarod’s Forge comes Leprechauns with Botox: the history of St Patrick’s Day in America.

Bonus link: Ten Years of the Buffyverse

And Eastward Ho!

Brian Ulrich investigates Jerusalem Foundations. Juan Cole offers a Very Basic Reading List on the Middle East. Gracchi explores the history of Tobacco in the Ottoman Empire. Alfa King has a personal perspective on the Anniversary of Mauritius independence.

Sepoy traces the shifting historiography of Quaid-e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. KM Lawson considers the run-up to the 1948 election in southern Korea in Getting out the Vote. And, not for the faint-hearted, Orac discusses the Japanese Doctors of Depravity, who carried out ‘experiments’ on prisoners of war during WWII.

Bonus link: the latest Asian History Carnival

A Bit of This and That (or, How the Times Change)

Steve Muhlberger takes a look at The crucial military role of horses 1815, followed up by Brad DeLong, where it set off a vigorous discussion in the comments, in What the horsemen did 1815. Evan Roberts reminds us of When winter would kill you. Phil Harland takes on some of the myths about savage pagans: Golden Rule: do unto others according to the pagans.

Brandon examines some of the difficult issues involved in translating early modern texts in Motifs de Convenance. Gracchi has been reading Hugh Trevor-Roper’s posthumously-published book on the Protestant Doctor: Sir Theodore de Mayerne. Fast forward a few centuries, and we find ourselves with Brett learning about Flying Fortresses.

Bonus link: the latest Bad History Carnival

Museums and material culture

At The Victorian Peeper, Kristan Tetens writes about the South American shrunken heads brought to England by Victorian collectors to wind up giving the Pitt-Rivers Museum a headache. Mary Beard has been visiting an awesome exhibition – unprepossessing on the surface, she compares it to The Roman Crown Jewels.

Jeremy Sandor reports on the ‘Innovation to Invention’ exhibit put together by his public history class: Please Touch, Pick Up, Use, Press, and Pass Around. Bill’s chronicling of the History of the Button brings us 1954 Ford Power Windows. At Strange Maps, we can find The whole world in a cloverleaf. Martin Rundkvist points out that studying the past wouldn’t really be any easier if we had time machines, In defence of archaeology.

I’m not sure, but this might be a first for a History Carnival: not a post, but a series of comments at Making Light, as Abi provided us with a fascinating history of bookbinding in five parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.

Bonus link: the latest Four Stone Hearth

Upcoming history carnivals

The next Asian History Carnival will be held on 18 March.

The next Carnivalesque will be an ancient/medieval edition on or about 25 March.

The very first Military History Carnival will be on 12 April.

The next History Carnival will be on 1 April and will be hosted by Mary Beard at A Don’s Life: usual submission form.

Well, that’s it, folks! I want to thank everyone who has been part of the History Carnival since it began, by getting involved, hosting, nominating posts and just writing great material for inclusion. Here’s to the next 50!

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UPDATE: one of our Plans is getting underway! Jon Dresner is setting up the History Carnivals Aggregator, a group blog for announcements and news for all the history carnivals. (Subscribe to the Atom feed.)

The NYT has an interesting article on progress in digitisation of historical sources, and the gaps being left behind (reg. required) (h-t).

It contains an argument, though, that I have some nagging doubts about: that, as more sources are digitised, those which remain available only in the archives will be more neglected than they were before.

Even with outside help, experts say, entire swaths of political and cultural history are in danger of being forgotten by new generations of amateur researchers and serious scholars. …

While the Internet boom has made information more accessible and widespread than ever, that very ubiquity also threatens records and artifacts that do not easily lend themselves to digitization — because of cost, but also because Web surfers and more devoted data hounds simply find it easier to go online than to travel far and wide to see tangible artifacts.

“This is the great problem right now, and it’s a scary thing,” said the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. “The dots are only connected by a few of us who are willing to go to the places to make those connections.”

But only a few of us ever were willing or able to go out there in the first place. Archival research has always been a minority pursuit, given the commitment and resources (including time) it demands. For most sane people, there must be more appealing pursuits.

Is it really the case, though, that the minority will be even smaller in the future because some research can be done without leaving one’s desk? Or is digital history creating large numbers of new researchers who, even if what they’re doing is limited by what’s available online, would never have even contemplated visiting archives or record offices to look at original documents?

I can imagine scenarios in which academics and postgrad students make decisions to restrict research projects (largely) to what they can do at their computer, where they might previously have unwillingly endured research trips. (Though I do find it harder to imagine any historian building a serious academic career entirely based on digital sources.) On the other hand, I can imagine how digital sources are likely to open up new possibilities for scholars whose options were previously narrowly circumscribed by their circumstances, lack of material resources, other personal and professional obligations.

[ETA: Writing that reminded me of something I'd read about Natalie Zemon Davis. The confiscation of your passport (as a suspected Communist) is undoubtedly a more unusual restriction on research travel, although she also faced more familiar problems; the way in which she subsequently made a virtue out of necessity is also well worth reading.]

I can imagine how the priorities of digitisation projects are likely to reinforce the emphasis of much popular history. At the same time, not all digital sources are records of the Great and Good. Far from it. There are now vast swathes of online sources about ordinary people, records which would previously have been accessible only to the chosen crazy dedicated few.

Loss or gain?

The 50th History Carnival will be held at this blog on 15 March.

Email your nominations for recently published posts about history (a historical topic, reviews of books or resources, reflections on teaching or researching history) to sharon {at} earlymodernweb.org(.)uk, or use the submission form provided by Blog Carnival.

Ingenious: a site full of intriguing, thought-provoking and downright lovely things for anyone with the slightest interest in science and knowledge, with the MOST ANNOYING FRONT PAGE I’ve seen in quite some time. (H-T.)

History Carnival 49 has been posted at History is Elementary. Number 50 will be here on 15 March. I’m debating whether to throw a party.

Meanwhile, the 13th Bad History Carnival has been posted at Rob’s New Old is the New New. Lots of fun!