2015: Failure, Growth, Challenges, and Progress

2015 was a year of chaotic learning. The short piece below outlines some of the tasks which were a part of the year, and where I'm hoping to go in 2016.

Review of Murolo and Chitty's From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend

Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty. From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of Labor in the United States. New York: The New Press. 2001. xx + 364. Cloth.

“It was past time to compile these insights into a new general history” (Murolo and Chitty, 2001: xi). This simple line sums up one of the critical differences between From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend and other scholarly works addressing labor history in the United States. Murolo and Chitty’s work is primarily a “general history,” in that its intention is not to provide an analytic, philosophical, or theoretical monograph on the course of labor history in the American nation. Instead, Folks is a narrative history of the United States, with the working members of society and their efforts highlighted throughout. The authors are careful to state their objectives from the start with hopes to provide “a comprehensive survey of U.S. history for the general reader...;” address that “the labor movement itself had changed...” since the last major general history had appeared; and finally, to correct what they saw as a defect in the American educational enterprise, that “much of what we learn and teach in schools is just not true” (Murolo and Chitty, 2001: xi-xii). Why is this relevant to assessing the value of Folks with regard to contemporary historiography? Without doing so, one risks unfairly critiquing Murolo and Chitty for not creating something they never intended to write.

Such unfair criticism would include challenging the lack of citation throughout the book, parenthetical, footnoted, or otherwise. While this indeed hinders readers from easily accessing the direct sources of information from which the authors draw their examples, incorporating them into this form of book hinders general readers and often conflicts with the publishing standards many companies have with regard to constructing monographs. In trying to create a review narrative for non-scholars, at least for those interested in having their work read, authors must adapt to the genre. This form exists in contrast to works focused on providing analysis and theory; those works necessitate providing clear citation in order to allow for verification and assessment by other scholars. Nelson Lichtenstein’s State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (2002) and Alice Kessler-Harris’s Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States (1982), both impressive analytic monographs which are of great utility to future scholars, include substantive citational and discursive notes to clarify and reinforce their efforts. When writers of analyses, including Bruce Laurie’s Artisans Into Workers (1989), fail to incorporate these mechanisms, their work is left open to challenge, loses some credibility, and may be limited in its utility to researchers. Folks, meanwhile, is not intended for such a purpose. Murolo and Chitty’s effort is instead focused on whetting the appetites of readers to look more closely at labor history and how the discipline can provide different perspectives on old, familiar, topics. When discursive footnotes are included, they provide both a momentary outlet from the central narrative, and again, stimulate interest for other areas to look. What does lend credence to the author’s understanding of the topic is a generous Suggested Readings section and fluent narrative style.

This fluency comes from a substantive background in issues of labor history. Murolo is a faculty member in the Department of History at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, where she is Director of the Women’s History Graduate Program. She has a PhD from Yale University (1993), where she studied under noted labor historian David Montgomery. Her other major monograph was The Common Ground of Womanhood: Class, Gender, and Working Girls’ Clubs 1884-1923 (1993) Arthur Ben (A.B.) Chitty is a Library Systems Officer and Higher Education Associate with Queens College, City University of New York. Chitty has produced eight short books analyzing topics as wide ranging as cities in the Southwest, university development in the Reconstruction South, and an autobiography of bi-racial, illegitimate child in Reconstruction Era Tennessee. They live in Yonkers, New York.

Murolo and Chitty use this scholarly background to their advantage in Folks. Their work is incredibly fluid and easily read, as they have the necessary practice to present the larger historical components with solid prose that feels well practiced (almost as if they are used to teaching the subject). The two are careful to include a wide variety of peoples, especially during their discussion of the colonial and Revolutionary periods, when general histories often are predominantly from the perspective of white, rich, male voices. Though this particular reader would have liked to see some referencing to the source material for these characters, that interest is primarily to assuage selfish curiosity, rather than scholarly expectation.

The inclusion of Joe Sacco’s fascinating illustrations provides a stimulating experience in its own right, and one could easily connect this history through cartoon to later historical works employing the graphic narrative form, especially Ari Kellman and Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s recent Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (2015).

Reviews of the book were generally favorable, and most, like Paul LeBlanc’s review in International Labor and Working Class History (Fall, 2004), recognize that while the book is “hardly the last word on the story of the US working class,” but it does give readers, “valuable knowledge, rich insights, and challenging interpretations,” useful, “not only for those just learning about US and labor history, but also for experienced hands who can benefit from, and be stimulated by, a fresh and sometimes audacious retelling of the story” (LeBlanc, 2004: 218). “Undoubtedly,” notes James Spady, reviewer for The Radical Teacher (Fall 2004), “specialist researchers will object to elements of the narrative, theory, and method implicit in the book” (Spady, 2004: 16). Indeed, objecting to these elements is, in large part, what provides jobs for scholars. This book is not for those readers though.

What general readers may struggle with is a problem inherent to many analyses in labor history, alphabet soup. A five-page section at the beginning of the book lays out a compendium of government, corporate, and organizational and programmatic name abbreviations. Even with this, readers may struggle to identify the difference between subjects, and they may get a headache trying to ascertain how these pieces fit together. This confusion, though, is not a problem created by Murolo and Chitty; it is a by-product of the complex system they discuss.

The final chapter of the book is one area in which this reviewer is uncertain. Murolo and Chitty bring their analysis chronologically as close as is possible when producing a book. While this would be unsurprising in a sociological, economic, or political science text, its incorporation in a substantive chapter (rather than in the Epilogue) is odd for a history text. One important considerations for historians attempting to support their claims is by ensuring “historical distance” from their subjects to preserve objectivity, that is, as Mark Phillips suggests in History Workshop Journal (Vol. 57, 2004), “in terms of emotional identification and detachment - and, by extension, of the political or social loyalties that engage both historians and readers with their stories” (Phillips, 2004, 127). The generally accepted exception to this concept is in appended sections (particularly Epilogues, Codas, and the like) where it is common for authors to highlight contemporary shifts and concerns as areas for future scholarly inquiry. This may however, be an attempt by the authors to represent their own advocacy for the study and importance of labor history. Such advocacy is also a commonplace occurrence, particularly for subfields seen as marginalized or shrinking, such as labor history.

This distance does not substantially alter the utility or tone of the book. It is, rather, a discursive difference in how one structures a history monograph (Itself obviously a far from settled formulation, something the thousands of “how-to” books available can attest to). Instead, this quirk provides an interesting opportunity for a new edition, one which incorporates all of the chaos caused by 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, the Tea Party, and our current era of income/wealth disparity. Perhaps, though, this would simply reiterate the lack of distance inherent to “compiling” the insights of contemporary history. It will certainly be interesting to see what makes the cut for the next generation of “general labor history.”

Review of Bruce Laurie's Artisans Into Workers (1989)

Bruce Laurie, Artisans Into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989. pp. 257. Includes Bibliographic Essay and Index.

*Note: Page numbers refer to Illini Books Edition, 1997.

In 1989, when writing Artisans Into Workers, Bruce Laurie had established himself as a historian interested in labor issues. Laurie graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971, having written his dissertation, “The Working People of Philadelphia, 1827-1853” which studied modernist laborers in America. By 1989, when Artisans Into Workers came out, Laurie had edited one major work on the subject and had successfully expanded his dissertation into a full-length monograph. Though Laurie’s research interests later on in his career would grow into studying conservativism’s development as well as abolitionism, at the time, he was primarily interested in the connections between labor and society in nineteenth-century America. These connections placed Laurie in the unique roll of being able to synthesize earlier institutionally focused labor history and the “new social history” of labor that was becoming popular at the time (indeed many of his reviewers noted this attempt as novel) as well as the intellectual roots of American radicalism.

Releasing Classified Information: The Presidential Daily Briefs and Our Understanding of Cold War Decision Making

On Wednesday, September 16, 2015 the Central Intelligence Agency released 2,500 President's Daily Briefings (PDB).¹ While this happened rather quietly for most Americans, it holds an amazing opportunity for those who are interested in presidential intellectual, political, military, intelligence, and institutional history (to name a few of the segments of historians). How can 2,500 redacted documents provide opportunity for so many researchers? To understand, one needs to have a primer about the documents themselves, as well as how intellectual historians work.

The President's Daily Briefing 

Dr. Stayput or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blogger

Many of the folks who I communicate with asked where I disappeared to from the end of January through the beginning of March with regard to A Historian Finding My Way, and you, my readers deserve a rational explanation. This post will explain what happened and where I'm intending to head in the future.

History Relevancy Campaign: Part 6: Our Future

Note: This is part 6 in an 8 part series on the History Relevancy Campaign, based on an article titled "The Value of History: Seven Ways It is Relevant" from Public History News Vol. 35, No. 1.

Note: Any quotes designated by an asterisk (*) come from that article.
Special thanks to the NCPH as inspiration for this series.

From the campaign's call to action: We believe that history --- both knowledge of the past and the practice of researching and making sense of what happened in the past --- is critically important to the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the future of our nation.*

Our Future- Engaged Citizens-History Helps People Craft Better Solutions.*

Reasons for Delay

Greetings Readers,

Many apologies for the delay in continuing A Historian Finding My Way. Between illness, courses, and testing an alternative website, things have bogged down a bit. Never fear though, I will return soon.

Best wishes,

Ethan

History Relevancy Campaign: Part 5 Our Communities (continued)

Note: This is part 5 in an 8 part series on the History Relevancy Campaign, based on an article titled "The Value of History: Seven Ways It is Relevant" from Public History News Vol. 35, No. 1.

Note: Any quotes designated by an asterisk (*) come from that article.
Special thanks to the NCPH as inspiration for this series.

From the campaign's call to action: We believe that history --- both knowledge of the past and the practice of researching and making sense of what happened in the past --- is critically important to the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the future of our nation.*

Our Communities- 4. Economic Development- History is a catalyst for economic growth.*

History Relevancy Campaign: Part 4 Our Communities

Note: This is part 4 in an 8 part series on the History Relevancy Campaign, based on an article titled "The Value of History: Seven Ways It is Relevant" from Public History News Vol. 35, No. 1.

Note: Any quotes designated by an asterisk (*) come from that article.

Special thanks to the NCPH as inspiration for this series.

From the campaign's call to action: We believe that history --- both knowledge of the past and the practice of researching and making sense of what happened in the past --- is critically important to the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the future of our nation.*

Our Communities- 3. Vital Places to Live and Work- History lays the groundwork for strong, resilient communities.*

History Relevancy Campaign: Part 3 (Our Selves Continued)

Note: This is part 3 in an 8 part series on the History Relevancy Campaign, based on an article titled "The Value of History: Seven Ways It is Relevant" from Public History News Vol. 35, No. 1.

Note: Any quotes designated by an asterisk (*) come from that article.

Special thanks to the NCPH as inspiration for this series.

From the campaign's call to action: We believe that history --- both knowledge of the past and the practice of researching and making sense of what happened in the past --- is critically important to the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the future of our nation.*

Our Selves- 2. Critical Skills- History teaches critical 21st century skills and independent thinking.*

History Relevancy Campaign Pt 2: Our Selves

Note: This is part 2 in an 8 part series on the History Relevancy Campaign, based on an article titled "The Value of History: Seven Ways It is Relevant" from Public History News Vol. 35, No. 1.

Note: Any quotes designated by an asterisk (*) come from that article.

Special thanks to the NCPH as inspiration for this series.

From the campaign's call to action: We believe that history --- both knowledge of the past and the practice of researching and making sense of what happened in the past --- is critically important to the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the future of our nation.*

"Our Selves: 1. Identity- History nurtures personal identity in an intercultural world."*

In describing his book Profiles in Courage, President John F. Kennedy said, "It is a lesson to all of us that courage is much more than bravery on the battlefield; that it can mean acting according to your beliefs whatever the consequences." (Profiles in Courage, 1964 Young Readers Memorial Edition, "Letter to the Reader") Those beliefs are a substantial part of our personal identity. This identity is in large part a result of our own personal histories.

One of many family reunions.

Many individuals' first interactions with history are in the form of family get-together's. Reunions, holidays, special occasions, and birthdays allow us the opportunity to interact with the elder generations of our family who teach us about who we are and where we come from. These lessons help children form permanent attachments to their past and start to develop moral, political, and religious perspectives that will follow them the rest of their lives.

My father's side of the family. Grandma and I spent many a day looking at our family tree.

My maternal grandparents and great-grandmother. Grandpa has a penchant for classic cars, Grandma has one for cooking, and Great-Grandma for sharing stories.

I was fortunate enough to spend much of my youth with grandparents and my great-grandmother. Along with lessons about how to change my oil, the appropriate temperature to bake cookies, and how to distinguish between turnips and weeds, each shared stories from their lives and the world around them. These stories were often interlaced with photos, newspaper clippings, and fun memorabilia people collect over the course of their lives. If you ever want to see a true American cultural history museum, look through my grandmother's file cabinet. J The small memento's we all keep for sentimental value are future tools for historians, archivists, and students.
Especially in the internet age, authentic information and life experiences are valuable. While most think that a grandparent's tales of how they met their spouse and that crazy day at the office are humorous, they miss the fact that each holds nuggets of information about finding the right person and developing work ethic. While the nuances of these values change over time, the basic foundations of citizenship and interpersonal relationships come from the tales from previous generations.

Two simple projects to explore how identity is shaped by history are by trying to make a family tree and a family crest.

Creating family trees (or genealogy for the sensitive) is a great, and inexpensive, opportunity for people to explore their own family history and to interact with family members. All that is required is a sheet of paper and a phone (although other resources are available depending on how sophisticated you'd like to be). My mother is fond of Ancestry.com and all the opportunities it provides. So far, we've traced back to the mid-seventeenth century with ours.

The first project my wife and I took up as a married couple was to make this family tree for our mothers.

Another relatively inexpensive project is creating a family crest. Sometimes, you'll get lucky and one already exists. If not, you'll have to make one. This can also be a great option for families wishing to start anew with a crest that expresses the values they hold. Stephen Slater's The Complete Book of Heraldry: An international history of heraldry and its contemporary uses (2003) is a good place to begin this project. While the title implies otherwise, Slater's book is a pretty good read and provides a foundation in the theory, design, and history of crests in simple fashion. Again, these can be as simple as a drawing on a sheet of notebook paper, or a gigantic wood-burnt 4-H project.

Yes, I did make that. It's about 3' x 1 1/2'. No, I don't make them anymore.

Activities such as these are simple ways that you can incorporate history into your life and help foster interest in younger generations. Taking simple steps to encourage your family members to interact will help lead to more fulfilling family functions that have a lasting impact on our collective future.

The History Relevancy Campaign: An Introduction

Welcome, I hope you all are having a pleasant holiday season and that you are well. I will freely admit that I am not an expert in the History Relevancy Campaign, its participants or partners. The information that will come as a part of these posts are my opinions and perspective based on an article in the National Council on Public History's 2014 Public History News titled "The Value of History: Seven Ways It is Relevant." Each post will cover another section of the Call to Action, which has been created by a group of history professionals and scholars since 2013.

Over the Holidays

Hello folks,

Over the next few weeks (aka the winter break for most students including me), I'll be bringing you a collection of short perspectives on the business of history. We'll be covering some ground I've wanted to look at for some time, including the History Relevance Campaign and what professional ethics mean for historians (new, old, professional, and armchair). Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.

-Ethan

A Review of History's Babel: AKA The Collapse of A Historic Enterprise

History’s Babel: Scholarship, Professionalization, and the Historical Enterprise in the United States, 1880-1940 by Robert B. Townsend. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013, xiii + 272 pp.; appendix; notes; index; paperback, $30.00.

Robert Townsend shows a love of both history and the American Historical Association in History’s Babel. Well versed, with over 20 years of experience in the organization, Townsend presents an institutional history of the AHA in an attempt to define the entirety of historical field in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Townsend dabbles with flavors of intellectual and cultural history creating a beautiful sampling of several approaches.

An Opportunity Lost

This weekend provided a wonderful trip down memory lane…almost. Due to my misfortune, I want to take a moment to talk about retaining your own work.

Emendation: The Incomplete, Abridged, and Generally Just-a-Primer Lay Persons Guide

Today I'm giving you a casual look at the process of emending a work. No, this isn't the Congressional process with all of its bickering.


Emending is the process of making correcting changes to a work. (As opposed to amending which is adding to or altering a work in order to improve its contents).

Little Suggestion

For some great reading on history and the issues it's facing today, try the National Council on Public History's Blog, History@Work. It makes quick reading of some of the things going on in our world relative to history. :)

The Challenges of Misattribution

Attribution of quotes is an important part of all academic work. Academic integrity is essential to us as scholars to be able to do our work and for it to have some meaning. Nowadays, there are numerous stories in the news about the academic world where misconduct and lack of citation results in problems, see this story in the New York Times. This is a distinct challenge to our credibility and place within society. This isn't limited solely to academia though, see a recent article about controversy regarding a Quote Linked to Orwell.

The Power Of Hashtags

One of my work tasks is to reach out via social media and try to engage with the public in the study of our topic. While this is often interesting work (finding quotes and presenting them in an engaging way), we struggle at times to get our voice heard.

I have always been hesitant to use #hashtags because of their connection to poor speech and a lack of well reasoned thought on the part of a writer. I have always been taught that text language and similar methods are less than academic and should be avoided. I forgot however one key lesson of anything you are presenting, consider your audience.

By incorporating hashtags to the end of our tweets and posts, we reached a significantly bigger audience than our previous attempts. For example, on average about 20 people would read a post on Facebook and about 1-2 would retweet or add us relative to any one post. By including hashtags as a change, we received 4 retweets, 2 favorites, and 5 new followers on Twitter. This is a dramatic increased our success rate. On Facebook, our post was explored by over 60 people within a matter of a couple of hours.

Who cares? Well the reality is that we are becoming more successful in our outreach and helping to generate interest in our topic. By incorporating hashtags, we've made our postings easier to find, access, and less daunting to a reader. With such a simple change a historian is capable of, in a military term, force multiplying, or making their efforts exponentially more successful by reaching more people.

Emendation, Referencing, and Databases

I write now in the throws of covering a lot of new realms. I am working in an academic critical editing project which has challenged and created new opportunities for learning. As a part of that work I've begun emending (yes, that's different from amending), reference researching, and editing a scholarly database. More posts I'm sure will follow to help those who aren't in the discipline help to understand these processes. I'm also the point man for the social media presence of the Edition, and will be blogging about the work we do at a later time (most likely this will be in an official format, but I'll try to provide what examples of this that I can). Also, I've begun working on my Thesis, and will try to share what I can without compromising my research. More will soon come. Stay tuned.