tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post2356401686467345985..comments2023-08-01T01:15:40.086-07:00Comments on Northwest History: Advice for Academic BloggersLarry Cebulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16798046652983001155noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-33591600370104889712011-11-13T20:03:28.810-08:002011-11-13T20:03:28.810-08:00I do disagree with the idea that a blog cannot be ...I do disagree with the idea that a blog cannot be historical and political. If political concerns are central to your historical work, it makes total sense to talk about both. Where I blog, the majority of my posts are political, but as a historian, I include a reasonable number of historical posts. It depends on how you define yourself as a blogger. To use your example, asking what the heck is wrong with Eric Cantor would just not be very helpful in the world of political blogging or historical blogging. But, as a labor and environmental historian of the Pacific Northwest, I talk about labor and environmental issues in the present and the past.Erik Loomishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06660188104251398316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-20104613897190605592011-11-09T08:46:29.456-08:002011-11-09T08:46:29.456-08:00Mark: Wow your blog is beautifully designed. I ha...Mark: Wow your blog is beautifully designed. I have to get up the energy to switch over to Wordpress.Larry Cebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798046652983001155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-33418438321638457782011-11-09T08:41:09.544-08:002011-11-09T08:41:09.544-08:00"history as an academic discipline full of th..."history as an academic discipline full of theories and "facts," versus popular history, which is full of memories and tales that confirm the world-view of people with no particular investment in objectivity."<br /><br />That is really well said. I was just looking at the NY Times bestseller list yesterday. Six of the top 15 non-fiction books were history titles, but all of them were devoted to offering comforting confirmation of the reader's existing world view.<br /><br />A sociologist friend once told me that if you want to write a best seller you should tell the readers things they already believe but make it sound new.Larry Cebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798046652983001155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-7168201173573007742011-11-09T06:34:45.552-08:002011-11-09T06:34:45.552-08:00Maybe I should remind us about the present split b...Maybe I should remind us about the present split between history as an academic discipline full of theories and "facts," versus popular history, which is full of memories and tales that confirm the world-view of people with no particular investment in objectivity. "People's" history in a particular way.<br /><br />But maybe more explosive IS "people's" history which is often from a previously unacknowledged point of view, a minority's POV, which may have a lot of emotional force behind it. It seems to me that history is in the crosshairs where structuralism crosses deconstruction. (I do think the two approaches are enmeshed in each other.)<br /><br />Prairie MaryMary Strachan Scriverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00538160009129822362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-17264149225115563812011-11-09T00:16:57.028-08:002011-11-09T00:16:57.028-08:00I would have to agree with your advice. I have fou...I would have to agree with your advice. I have found myself working through these very obstacles you answer. Particularly vexing to me are the implications of #3 with a bloggers desire to accrue traffic. In my experience searching over the web for dialogues in American history, blogs are either about the Civil War, are political in nature, or represent sites which might more rightly be called antiquarian. While these are all quite valuable in their own right, they have not satisfied my want for a public presentation of academic history. While this discussion could go much further in regard to the seeming inability of academic history to attract popular audiences (wether thats a function of our professionalism or wider culture), I only hope that blogs such as yours could move us in the right direction. My blog @ gildedempire.wordpress.com is my latest attempt at merging academic and public history looking at the American West during the Gilded Age. Partially, my blog is also an attempt at honing various narrative and presentation styles in type.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06047149612938660915noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-61265795490088023812011-11-08T22:54:33.993-08:002011-11-08T22:54:33.993-08:00Hi Mary! Good point--I framed this as for "ac...Hi Mary! Good point--I framed this as for "academic" bloggers because that is where I live and what I know. And also--and you may not know this--because a lot of untenured academics are afraid to blog. I know that sounds ridiculous (because it is ridiculous) but they have a real fear that their colleagues will look at blogging as evidence of a lack of <i>seriousness</i>. Sad but absolutely true.<br /><br />Maybe I should have titled the post "Advice to History Bloggers?" Because after all most of my favorite history blogs are not written by academics. Yeah, I think I should have done that...Larry Cebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798046652983001155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-17000719580375974522011-11-08T21:00:48.150-08:002011-11-08T21:00:48.150-08:00So what's academic? I've proposed to be a...So what's academic? I've proposed to be a "public intellectual." I'm not sure what that is, except that I feel I'm entitled to use big words. At the moment I'm doing the same thing I used to do in the seminar that was supposed to be prepping for a doctoral thesis (Doctor of Ministry, an off-brand doc). In fact, I'm finishing that thesis now. But I find that if I don't mix in a little local politics and some lyrical weather observations now and then, I lose my audience.<br /><br />Of course, I started out to be academic in the sense that I wanted to put Blackfeet in touch with the academic stuff about them -- augmented with a few of my own memories. Then I wandered off the topic, but I return now and then.<br /><br />The main thing about my blog -- Prairiemary.blogspot.com -- being academic is that I'm writing about things I really care about and feel I know about, but I don't have to please either an older scholar intent on preserving his reputation or any competitors looking for ways to kneecap me. Though I do hear an arrow whiz by now and then. <br /><br />Ah, well. Life needs a little excitement.<br /><br />Prairie Mary AKA<br />Mary SCrivermscriverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567509503405689139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533010775907799154.post-62142275231252393952011-11-07T09:11:23.535-08:002011-11-07T09:11:23.535-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com